Lev Alexandrovich Anninsky (, 7 April 1934 – 6 November 2019) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

literary critic A genre of arts criticism, literary criticism or literary studies is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical analysis of literature' ...

, historian, publicist, essayist and author of more than 30 books. He was also a scriptwriter, and as such the three times

TEFI TEFI () is an annual award given in the Russian television industry, presented by the Russian Academy of Television. It has been awarded since 1994. TEFI is presented in various sectors (up to 50 nominations in 2008), such as television shows ...

laureate (1996 and 2004, twice).

Biography

Anninsky was born in

Rostov-on-Don Rostov-on-Don is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East European Plain on the Don River, from the Sea of Azov, directly north of t ...

, to Alexander Anninsky, a

cossack The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic Eastern Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. Cossacks played an important role in defending the southern borders of Ukraine and Rus ...

from

stanitsa A stanitsa or stanitza ( ; ), also spelled stanycia ( ) or stanica ( ), was a historical administrative unit of a Cossack host, a type of Cossack polity that existed in the Russian Empire. Etymology The Russian word is the diminutive of the word ...

Novo-Anninskaya, and Anna (Khana Zalmanovna) Alexandrova, born in

Lyubech Liubech ( Ukrainian and Russian: ; ) is a rural settlement in Chernihiv Oblast, northern Ukraine. Liubech is located north of the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv, and located near the border with Belarus. It hosts the administration of Liubech settl ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. Vladimir Nordwic
Lev Anninsky's Last Interview
April 2016 e-issued 6 November 2019 Rodina Magazine His grandmother Bronislava Gershenovich was murdered in 1921 on a country road by members of the

Chernigov Chernihiv (, ; , ) is a city and municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative center of Chernihiv Oblast and Chernihiv Raion within the oblast. Chernihiv's population is The city was designated as a Hero City of Ukrain ...

-based Ivan Galaka's gang, for being Jewish. In his early years he read a lot, mostly Russian classics and history books, but also philosophers like

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealism, German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political phi ...

and

Kant Immanuel Kant (born Emanuel Kant; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, et ...

. In 1939, as a five-year-old, he appeared on screen, cast as a kindergarten boy in the film ''The Foundling'' (Подкидыш). Anninsky's father, originally a school teacher, later a

Mosfilm Mosfilm (, ''Mosfil’m'' , initialism and portmanteau of Moscow Films) is a film studio in Moscow which is among the largest and oldest in the Russian Federation and in Europe. Founded in 1924 in the USSR as a production unit of that nation's fi ...

producer, 1941 went to

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 ...

and was gone missing. As Anninsky learned years later, he got injured during the German aviation raid in mid-1942 near

Polotsk Polotsk () or Polatsk () is a town in Vitebsk Region, Belarus. It is situated on the Dvina River and serves as the administrative center of Polotsk District. Polotsk is served by Polotsk Airport and Borovitsy air base. As of 2025, it has a pop ...

, was captured and was later shot dead by the Ukrainian polizei. Anninsky's mother taught

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

in a technical college for the rest of her life. In 1956, still a student at the

Moscow University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, and six branches. Al ...

philological faculty, Anninsky debuted as a literary critic with the analysis of

Vladimir Dudintsev Vladimir Dimitrievich Dudintsev (, ; 29 July 1918 – 23 July 1998) was a Soviet writer who gained fame for his 1956 novel, '' Not by Bread Alone'', published at the time of the Khrushchev Thaw. Dudintsev, the son of a member of the gentry, atte ...

's novel ''

Not by Bread Alone ''Not by Bread Alone'' () is a 1956 novel by the Soviet author Vladimir Dudintsev. The novel, published in installments in the journal ''Novy Mir'', was a sensation in the USSR. The tale of an engineer who is opposed by bureaucrats in seeking ...

''. After the graduation he was about to join the post-graduate courses, but this coincided with the events in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. Since the uprising there has been instigated by this country's literary elite, the

CPSU The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...

decided to "brush the ideology up" in the Soviet academic circles and Anninsky found out that to re-join the university he'll have to do some practical work first. He spent half a year in the ''

Sovetsky Soyuz ''Sovétsky Soyúz'' () was a magazine published by the Soviet Union. The magazine was established in 1956. It was one of the propaganda magazines of the Soviet Union. There were editions published in France, Italy, Finland and Japan Jap ...

'' magazine, got fired, joined the ''

Literaturnaya Gazeta ''Literaturnaya Gazeta'' (, ''Literary Gazette'') is a weekly cultural and political newspaper published in Russia and the Soviet Union. It was published for two periods in the 19th century, and was revived in 1929. Overview The current newspa ...

'' (1957-1960), then ''

Znamya ''Znamya'' ( rus, Знамя, p=ˈznamʲə, a=Ru-знамя.ogg, lit. "The Banner") is a Russian monthly literary magazine, which was established in Moscow in 1931. In 1931–1932, the magazine was published under the name of ''Lokaf'' ("Лок ...

'' magazine (1960-1967). In 1965 ''The Nut's Core'', his first major collection of critical essays came out. Upon signing a letter supporting the

dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 2 ...

Andrey Sinyavsky Andrei Donatovich Sinyavsky (; 8 October 1925 – 25 February 1997) was a Russian writer and Soviet dissident known as a defendant in the Sinyavsky–Daniel trial of 1965. Sinyavsky was a literary critic for ''Novy Mir'' and wrote works critical ...

, his former university tutor, he was evicted from ''Znamya''. In 1968-1972 Anninsky worked in the Institute of Sociological research at the Academy of Science, then joined ''

Druzhba Narodov Druzhba may refer to: Places *The former name of the city Khutir-Mykhailivskyi in Sumy Oblast, Ukraine *Druzhba, Chernihiv Oblast, an urban-type settlement in Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine * Druzhba, Donetsk Oblast, an urban-type settlement in Donetsk ...

'' magazine (1972-1991), starting a career of a freelancer which brought him the reputation of an insightful and original author whose essays were welcomed both in '' Oktyabr'' and ''

Novy mir ''Novy Mir'' (, ) is a Russian-language monthly literary magazine. History ''Novy Mir'' has been published in Moscow since January 1925. It was supposed to be modelled on the popular pre-Soviet literary magazine ''Mir Bozhy'' ("God's World"), w ...

'', the two magazines belonging to the competing ('patriots'/'liberals') factions. Anninsky has never joined the Soviet Communist Party. The 1970s saw the publication of several books by Anninsky, among them ''Betrothed to the Idea'' (on

Nikolai Ostrovsky Nikolai Alekseyevich Ostrovsky (; ; 29 September 1904 – 22 December 1936) was a Soviet socialist realist writer. He is best known for his novel '' How the Steel Was Tempered''. Life Ostrovsky was born in the village of ''Viliya'' (today a v ...

’s ''

How the Steel Was Tempered ''How the Steel Was Tempered'' () or ''The Making of a Hero'', is a socialist realist novel written by Nikolai Ostrovsky (1904–1936). With 36.4 million copies sold, it is one of the best-selling books of all time and the best-selling book ...

'', 1971) and ''Vasily Shukshin'' (1976). Anninsky's books of the 1980s included ''The Leo Hunters (

Lev Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using pre-reform Russian orthography. ; ), usually referr ...

in cinema)'', 1980, 1989; ''Leskovian Necklace'' (1982, 1885), ''Contacts'' (1982), ''Branches Full of Sunlight'' (a study on

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

n photography, 1984), ''Nikolai Gubenko'' (1986) and ''The Three Heretics'' (1988), a trilogy on the mavericks of 19th-century Russian literature:

Pisemsky Aleksey Feofilaktovich Pisemsky () () was a Russian novelist and dramatist who was regarded as an equal of Ivan Turgenev and Fyodor Dostoyevsky in the late 1850s, but whose reputation suffered a spectacular decline after his fall-out with ''Sovre ...

, Melnikov-Pechersky and Leskov. In 1990-1992, Anninsky worked in ''Literaturnoye obozrenye'' (The Literature Review), then joined the newly formed ''Rodina'' magazine and in 1998 became the editor of the short-lived ''Vremya i my'' (Time And Us) project. Among his works of the time were ''The Flying Curtain'' (Essays on Georgian literature, 1990), ''Men of the Sixties and Our Times'' (subtitled: "The Cinema that Made History and the One that Never Did," 1991), ''The Bards'' (1999). His 1997 book ''The Silver and the Black'' (subtitled: "The Russian, the Soviet, the Slavic and the Worldly in the Silver Age poetry"), on the 12 poets of the early 20th century, formed the basis for the TV documentary series of the same title. Directed by Vitaly Maksimov and premiered on Kultura TV in 2004, it earned Anninsky two

s (in "The Best Script" and "The Best TV Documentary" categories). In 2010, Lev Anninsky received the "White Elephant" (Слон), the

Russian Guild of Film Critics The Russian Guild of Film Critics () is a Russian organization of professional film critics, headquartered in Moscow. Beginning in 1998, the guild began conferring annual awards in several categories. The awards were called the "Golden Ram" or ...

' award. Since 2003, Anninsky had been a member of the

Yasnaya Polyana Literary Award The Yasnaya Polyana Literary Award is an annual all-Russian literary award that was founded in 2003 by the Leo Tolstoy Museum Estate and Samsung Electronics. It is presented to the best traditional-style novel written in Russian or translated into ...

jury. Anninsky died on 6 November 2019.

References

External links

*
''Откровение и сокровение''
(Revelation and Intimacy). Collection of Anninsky's essays on

Afanasy Fet Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet ( rus, Афана́сий Афана́сьевич Фет, p=ɐfɐˈnasʲɪj ɐfɐˈnasʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈfʲɛt, a=Ru-Afanasiy Afanas'yevich Fyet.oga), later known as Shenshin ( rus, Шенши́н, p=ʂɨnˈʂɨn, a=Ru-Afa ...

Nikolai Leskov Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov (; – ) was a Russian novelist, short-story writer, playwright, and journalist, who also wrote under the pseudonym M. Stebnitsky. Praised for his unique writing style and innovative experiments in form, and held ...

(''Leskovian Neclkace''),

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 ...

and

Andrey Platonov Andrei Platonovich Platonov ( rus, Андрей Платонович Платонов, , ɐnˈdrʲej plɐˈtonəvʲɪtɕ plɐˈtonəf; []; – 5 January 1951) was a Soviet Russian people, Russian novelist, short story writer, philosopher, play ...

(''Revelation and Intimacy''), Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Viktor Astafyev and

Vasily Grossman Vasily Semyonovich Grossman (; 12 December (29 November, Julian calendar) 1905 – 14 September 1964) was a Soviet writer and journalist. Born to a Jewish family in Ukraine, then part of the Russian Empire, Grossman trained as a chemical engine ...

. (In Russian) {{DEFAULTSORT:Anninsky, Lev Alexandrovich 1934 births 2019 deaths Writers from Rostov-on-Don Russian literary critics Russian male journalists Academicians of the Russian Academy of Cinema Arts and Sciences "Nika" Soviet literary historians Soviet male writers 20th-century Russian male writers Soviet male child actors Academicians of the National Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Russia Soviet Jews 20th-century Russian Jews 20th-century Russian historians