Maria Pavlovna Prilezhayeva (; 22 June 1903,

Yaroslavl Yaroslavl (; , ) is a city and the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located northeast of Moscow. The historic part of the city is a World Heritage Site, and is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl rivers. ...

– 10 April 1989,

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

) was a Soviet and Russian

children's author Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

, literary critic and the

Union of Soviet Writers The Union of Soviet Writers, USSR Union of Writers, or Soviet Union of Writers () was a creative union of professional writers in the Soviet Union. It was founded in 1934 on the initiative of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (1932) a ...

official, best known for her novel ''The Life of Lenin'' (1970) which earned her the N. K. Krupskaya RSFSR State Prize in 1971 and later the

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 ...

Biography

Maria Prilezhayeva was born in Yaroslavl to a family of impoverished

gentry Gentry (from Old French , from ) are "well-born, genteel and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past. ''Gentry'', in its widest connotation, refers to people of good social position connected to Landed property, landed es ...

. Her childhood years were spent in

Alexandrov Alexandrov (masculine, also written Alexandrow) or Alexandrova (feminine) may refer to: * Alexandrov (surname) (including ''Alexandrova''), a Slavic last name * Alexandrov, Vladimir Oblast, Russia * Alexandrov (inhabited locality), several inhabite ...

. At the age of 16, having graduated from a local school, she started to work as a teacher in a village. In 1925 Prilezhayeva enrolled into 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 ...

pedagogical faculty from which she graduated five years later, and went on to teach in schools, in

Arkhangelsk Arkhangelsk (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina near its mouth into the White Sea. The city spreads for over along the ...

Zagorsk Sergiyev Posad ( rus, Сергиев Посад, p=ˈsʲɛrgʲɪ(j)ɪf pɐˈsat) is a city that is the administrative center of Sergiyevo-Posadsky District in Moscow Oblast, Russia. Population: The city contains the Trinity Lavra of St. Serg ...

and

. In 1936, she started working for magazines and newspapers, reviewing books of Russian and foreign authors. In 1941, having learned of the death of one of her favorite students in the

Winter War The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peac ...

, she wrote her first novel ''Etot God'' (That Year). Several more school-themed books followed, including ''Semiklassnitsy'' (The 7th Form Girls, 1944) and ''Yunost Mashi Strogovoi'' (The Youth of Masha Strogova, 1948). Describing herself as a 'lyrical realist', Prilezhayeva cited

Leo 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 Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...

and

Alexander Blok Alexander Alexandrovich Blok ( rus, Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Бло́к, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ ˈblok, a=Ru-Alyeksandr Alyeksandrovich Blok.oga; 7 August 1921) was a Russian lyrical poet, writer, publ ...

as her major influences. From the mid-1950s, Prilezhayeva's books became increasingly political. ''S Beregov Medveditsy'' (From the Medveditsa River Banks, 1955) novel related the life story of

Mikhail Kalinin Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin (, ; 3 June 1946) was a Soviet politician and Russian Old Bolshevik revolutionary who served as the first chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (head of state) from 1938 until his resignation in 1946. From ...

. Her 1970 novel ''Zhizn Lenina'' (The Life of Lenin) earned her the N. K. Krupskaya RSFSR State Prize (1971) and later the

Lenin Komsomol Prize Lenin Komsomol Prize () was a Soviet Union, Soviet annual award for the best works in science, engineering, literature or art carried out by young authors of age not exceeding 33 years. Komsomol was the abbreviated name of The Communist Union of ...

(1983). As a

' official, it was Prilezhayeva's duty to take part in all meetings concerning the

dissidents 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 ...

' cases, but in comparison to her colleagues she was considered a liberal. Author and lawyer Arkady Waksberg mentioned her among those who (unsuccessfully) tried to help the poet

Leib Kvitko Leyb Moiseyevich Kvitko (, ) (October 15, 1890 – August 12, 1952) was a prominent Yiddish poet, an author of well-known children's poems and a member of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC). He was one of the editors of ''Eynikayt'' (the ...

, one of the victims of the so-called ' uprooting cosmopolitism' campaign. Polezhayeva was known to support young authors. Among her literary protégés were Anatoly Aleksin,

Mikhail Alekseyev Mikhail Vasilyevich Alekseyev () ( – ) was an Imperial Russian Army general during World War I and the Russian Civil War. Between 1915 and 1917 he served as Tsar Nicholas II's Chief of Staff of the Stavka, and after the February Revolut ...

, Albert Likhanov, and Azat Abdullin. The 1980s political movement,

Perestroika ''Perestroika'' ( ; rus, перестройка, r=perestrojka, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg, links=no) was a political reform movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s, widely associ ...

, forced Prilezhayeva to reconsider her beliefs. She wrote in a diary in June 1987, "Some of my ideals have crashed... But how stupidly have they trampled them under feet, and how silly and naive those beliefs of mine have been". She died on April 10, 1989, in Moscow.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prilezhayeva, Maria 1903 births 1989 deaths 20th-century Russian short story writers 20th-century Russian women writers People from Yaroslavl Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Recipients of the Lenin Komsomol Prize Recipients of the Order of the Badge of Honour Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Socialist realism writers Russian women biographers 20th-century Russian biographers Russian women children's writers Russian women novelists Russian women short story writers Soviet biographers Soviet children's writers Soviet short story writers Soviet women novelists Soviet novelists