Mikhail Nikolayevich Alekseyev (, 6 May

1918 The ceasefire that effectively ended the World War I, First World War took place on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of this year. Also in this year, the Spanish flu pandemic killed 50–100 million people wor ...

, Monastyrskoye,

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- 21 May

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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 ...

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) was a Russian Soviet writer and

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...

, writing mostly about the

Great Patriotic War The Eastern Front, also known as the Great Patriotic War (term), Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union and its successor states, and the German–Soviet War in modern Germany and Ukraine, was a Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II ...

(''Soldiers'', 1951, 1959; ''My Stalingrad'', 1993-1998, the Fatherland and Mikhail Sholokhov Prizes, respectively) and the life of Soviet peasantry (''Unweeping Willow'', 1970-1974, the

USSR State Prize The USSR State Prize () was one of the Soviet Union’s highest civilian honours, awarded from its establishment in September 1966 until the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. It recognised outstanding contributions in the fields of science, mathem ...

in 1976). His controversial ''Fighters'' (1981) novel was one of the few non-

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 ...

works of the time to bring about the issue of the 1933 Soviet famine. In 1969-1990 Alekseyev edited ''

Moskva Moscow is the capital and largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents within the city limits, over 19.1 million residents in the urban area, and over ...

'' magazine.

Biography

Mikhail Alekseyev was born in Monastyrskoye village of the

, into a peasant family. In 1933 his mother died of famine, a year later his father, a victim of political repressions, died in

GULAG The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

. In 1936 he enrolled into the Training college, then got mobilized 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 ...

and was sent to

Irkutsk Irkutsk ( ; rus, Иркутск, p=ɪrˈkutsk; Buryat language, Buryat and , ''Erhüü'', ) is the largest city and administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. With a population of 587,891 Irkutsk is the List of cities and towns in Russ ...

. In 1940, not long before the demobilization he was sent to the 2-months courses for politruks. As the

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, Alekseyev was moved to the frontline. "I came in on the War on 3 July 1941, and the Victory was waiting for me at the gates of Golden

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

on 9 May 1945," he wrote later. In 1942 he became the member of the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union 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 ...

. Also in 1942 he started to write articles, essays and short stories for regional frontline papers. Up until 1950 Alekseyev stayed with his Army unit in Europe. In 1950-1955 he worked as an editor in a Military publishing house in Moscow. In 1955 he was demobilized in the rank of

polkovnik (; ) is a military rank used mostly in Slavic-speaking countries which corresponds to a colonel in English-speaking states, ''coronel'' in Spanish and Portuguese-speaking states and ''oberst'' in several German-speaking and Scandinavian countr ...

Career

Alekseyev started to write fiction in the late 1940s but his first war-themed thrillers failed to make an impact. His breakthrough came with the War epic ''Soldiers'' (1951-1953, ''Sibirskiye Ogni'' magazine), the second part of which, ''Puti-Dorogi'' (Endless Roads), came out in 1953. It was followed by two short story collections (''Our Lieutenant'', 1955, ''There Were Two Friends'', 1958), a novella (''The Inheritors'', 1957) and ''Divizionka'' (Division Newspaper), a 1959 book of documentary non-fiction. His 1961 novel ''The Cherry-Сoloured Pool'', about the life of Russian village, was welcomed by

Mikhail Sholokhov Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov ( rus, Михаил Александрович Шолохов, p=ˈʂoləxəf; – 21 February 1984) was a Russian novelist and winner of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is known for writing about life ...

, whom Alekseyev later cited as a major influence. In 1966 this book earned him the Maxim Gorky State Prize. It was followed by the novels ''Bread is a Noun'' (1964) and ''Karyukha'' (1967). The latter, telling the tragic story of Soviet peasant family struggling through 1930s, is regarded as one of Alekseyev's best. The two-part novel ''Unweeping Willow'' (1970, 1974), a vast panorama of the 1930s-1960s rural Soviet

Privolzhye Privolzhye () is the name of several rural localities in Russia: * Privolzhye, Samara Oblast, a '' selo'' in Privolzhsky District of Samara Oblast * Privolzhye, Tver Oblast, a village in Zubtsovskoye Rural Settlement of Zubtsovsky District of Tve ...

, earned him the

in 1976. Of the films based upon Alekseyev's novels, the best known are director Nikolai Moskalenko's ''Zhuravushka'' (1968, after ''Bread Is a Noun'') and ''Russian Field'' (1971, ''Unweeping Willow''). Mikhail Alekseyev's 1981 controversial novel ''Fighters'' dealt with the 1932-1933 famine. "The subject was a taboo then. But it lived within and tormented me. Having published so many books, I've still failed to tell the truth about the thing that had such an impact upon my fellow countrymen, about this immense catastrophe. 1933 was a

genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

and the exact figure of its victims has not yet been named," he later wrote. In 1991 another autobiographical novel ''Ryzhonka'' came out, seen as part of the autobiographical trilogy, started by ''Karyukha'' and ''Fighters''. In 1993 Alekseyev received the Fatherland Prize for his autobiographical war-time novel ''My Stalingrad'' (1993); the second part of it came out in 1998 and brought him the Mikhail Sholokhov Prize. "I've made my mind to write only of the things I myself witnessed while fighting in the Autumn 1942 and Winter 1943 between Don and

Volga The Volga (, ) is the longest river in Europe and the longest endorheic basin river in the world. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchment ...

, without making anything up," he explained.My Stalingrad. Moscow, 1995. P.9 Alekseyev was a staunch

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

and, during the ideological feuds between literary 'liberal' and 'patriotic' factions, invariably supported the latter. In 1969 he was among those who signed the infamous ''

Ogoniok ''Ogoniok'' ( rus, Огонёк, Ogonyok, t=Spark, p=ɐɡɐˈnʲɵk, a=Ru-огонёк.ogg; pre-reform orthography: Огонекъ) was one of the oldest weekly illustrated magazines in Russia. History and profile ''Ogoniok'' was first issue ...

''-published open letter condemning ''

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 ...

'', and never repented. As a ''

'' magazine's editor-in-chief he published

Nikolay Karamzin Nikolay Mikhailovich Karamzin () was a Russian historian, writer, poet and critic. He is best remembered for his fundamental ''History of the Russian State'', a 12-volume national history. Early life Karamzin was born in the small village of ...

's ''History of the Russian State'' in full, which at the time was regarded as a daring challenge to academician

Alexander Yakovlev Alexander Nikolayevich Yakovlev (; 2 December 1923 – 18 October 2005) was a Soviet and Russian politician, diplomat, and historian. A member of the Politburo and Secretariat of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union throughout the 1980s ...

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 ...

's main ideologist. In 1990s Alekseyev criticized

Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician and statesman who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1961 to ...

and his team of reformists. Outraged by the demolition of the Russian Duma in October 1993, he reacted with the series of angry articles published by ''

Zavtra Alexander Andreyevich Prokhanov (; born 26 February 1938) is a Russian writer, a member of the secretariat of the Writers Union of the Russian Federation, and the author of more than 30 novels and short story collections. He is the editor-in-chi ...

'', ''

Sovetskaya Rossiya ''Sovetskaya Rossiya'' (, ''Soviet Russia'') is a political newspaper in Russia. It kept its name after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991 and presently presents itself as a leftist independent newspaper. Its current editor ...

'' and ''

Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, 'Truth') is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most in ...

''. Alekseyev's last novel was ''The Occupants'', a sequel to ''My Stalingrad''. Mikhail Alekseyev died on 21 May 2007 in Moscow and is interred in the Peredelkino Cemetery.

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alekseyev, Mikhail 1918 births 2007 deaths People from Saratov Oblast People from Atkarsky Uyezd Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, 1967–1971 Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, 1971–1975 Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, 1975–1980 Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, 1980–1985 Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, 1985–1990 Soviet novelists Soviet male writers Russian editors Russian male journalists Russian male novelists Soviet editors Soviet journalists Socialist realism writers 20th-century Russian journalists 20th-century Russian male writers Moskva (magazine) editors Soviet Army officers Soviet military personnel of World War II Recipients of the USSR State Prize Heroes of Socialist Labour Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the October Revolution Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the Order of the Red Star Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples Recipients of the Medal of Zhukov