Venedikt Vasilyevich Yerofeyev, also Benedict Erofeev or Erofeyev (; 24 October 1938 in Niva-3

settlement Settlement may refer to: *Human settlement, a community where people live *Settlement (structural), downward movement of a structure's foundation *Settlement (finance), where securities are delivered against payment of money *Settlement (litigatio ...

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

Kandalaksha Kandalaksha () is a town in Kandalakshsky District of Murmansk Oblast, Russia, located at the head of Kandalaksha Gulf on the White Sea, north of the Arctic Circle. Population: 40,564 ( 2002 Census); Etymology According to the most common ...

– 11 May 1990 in

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 Russian writer and

Soviet dissident Soviet dissidents were people who disagreed with certain features of Soviet ideology or with its entirety and who were willing to speak out against them. The term ''dissident'' was used in the Soviet Union (USSR) in the period from the mid-1960s ...

Biography

Yerofeyev was born in the

maternity hospital A maternity hospital specializes in caring for women during pregnancy and childbirth. It also provides care for newborn infants, and may act as a centre for clinical training in midwifery and obstetrics. Formerly known as lying-in hospitals, most ...

of Niva-3 by

Murmansk Oblast Murmansk Oblast is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (an oblast) of Russia, located in the northwestern part of the country, with a total land area of . Its only internal border is the Republic of Karelia to the south, and it is bor ...

, a settlement of "

special settler Special settlements in the Soviet Union were the result of population transfers and were performed in a series of operations organized according to social class or nationality of the deported. Resettling of "enemy classes" such as prosperous ...

s" employed in the construction of a

hydroelectric power Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...

station on the Niva River. (Now Niva-3 is a

microdistrict A microdistrict or microraion is a residential complex—a primary structural element of the residential area construction in the Soviet Union and in some post-Soviet and former socialist states. Residential districts in most of the cities a ...

of Kandalaksha.) The record made in his

birth certificate A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the Childbirth, birth of a person. The term "birth certificate" can refer to either the original document certifying the circumstances of the birth or to a certified copy of or representation ...

declares his birthplace to be his parents' place of residence: Chupa railway station,

Loukhsky District Loukhsky District (; ) is an administrative district (raion), one of the administrative divisions of the Republic of Karelia, fifteen in the Republic of Karelia, Russia.Constitution of the Republic of Karelia It is located in the north of the repu ...

Karelian ASSR The Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Karelian ASSR for short, sometimes referred to as Soviet Karelia, East Karelia or simply Karelia, was an autonomous republic of the Russian SFSR within the Soviet Union, with its capital in Petr ...

. His father was imprisoned during

Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...

but survived 6 years in the

gulags The Gulag was a system of forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Soviet secret police that was in charge of running the forced labor camps from the 1930s to the early 195 ...

. Most of Yerofeyev's childhood was spent in

Kirovsk, Murmansk Oblast Kirovsk (), known as Khibinogorsk () until 1934, is a town in Murmansk Oblast, Russia, located at the spurs of the Khibiny Mountains on the shores of the Lake Bolshoy Vudyavr, south of Murmansk. Population: History A settlement which even ...

. He managed to enter the philology department of the

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

but was expelled from the university after a year and a half because he did not attend compulsory military training. Later he studied in several more

institute An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

s in different towns, including

Kolomna Kolomna (, ) is a historic types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, situated at the confluence of the Moskva River, Moskva and Oka Rivers, (by rail) southeast of Moscow. Population: History Mentioned for the fir ...

and

Vladimir Vladimir (, , pre-1918 orthography: ) is a masculine given name of Slavic origin, widespread throughout all Slavic nations in different forms and spellings. The earliest record of a person with the name is Vladimir of Bulgaria (). Etymology ...

, but he never managed to graduate from any, usually being expelled due to his "amoral behaviour". Between 1958 and 1975, Yerofeyev lived without ''propiska'' in various towns in Russia,

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 ...

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

, and

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 ...

, also spending some time in

Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...

and

Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

, doing different low-level and underpaid jobs; for a time he lived and worked in the Muromtsev Dacha in Moscow. He started writing at the age of 17; in the 1960s he unsuccessfully submitted several articles on

Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright, poet and actor. Ibsen is considered the world's pre-eminent dramatist of the 19th century and is often referred to as "the father of modern drama." He pioneered ...

and Hamsun to literary magazines.

Literary legacy

Yerofeyev is best known for his 1969 " poem in prose" (ironical assignment of the genre) ''

Moscow-Petushki ''Moscow-Petushki'', also published in English as ''Moscow to the End of the Line'', ''Moscow Stations'', and ''Moscow Circles'', is a postmodernist prose poem by Russian writer and satirist Venedikt Yerofeyev. Written between 1969 and 1970 an ...

'' (several English translations exist, including ''Moscow to the End of the Line'', ''Moscow Circles'', and ''Moscow Stations''). It is an account of a journey from

to Petushki (

Vladimir Oblast Vladimir Oblast () is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Vladimir, which is located east of Moscow. As of the 2010 Census, the oblast's population was 1,443,693. The UNESCO World Heritage L ...

) by electric train, one of many futile attempts to visit his small son: each time such a journey becomes soaked in alcohol and fails. During the trip, the hero becomes involved in philosophical discussions about drinking, recounts some of the fantastic escapades he participated in, including declaring war on

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

, charting the drinking statistics of his colleagues when leader of a cable-laying crew, and obsessing about the woman he loves. Referred to by

David Remnick David J. Remnick (born October 29, 1958) is an American journalist, writer, and editor. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for his book '' Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire'', and is also the author of ''Resurrection'' and ''King of t ...

as "the comic high-water mark of the Brezhnev era", the poem was published for the first time in 1973 in a Russian-language magazine in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

. It was not published in the

Soviet Union 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 ...

until 1989. Of note is his smaller 1988 work ''My Little Leniniana'' (Моя маленькая лениниана, Moya malenkaya Leniniana), which is a collection of quotations from

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

's works and letters, which shows the unpleasant parts of the character of the "leader of the proletariat". Alexander Bondarev tells the story of its origin. Yerofeyev also claimed to have written in 1972 a novel ''Shostakovich'' about the famous Russian composer

Dmitri Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and thereafter was regarded as a major composer. Shostak ...

, but the manuscript was allegedly stolen in a train. The novel has never been found. Before his death of throat

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

Yerofeyev finished a play called ''

Walpurgisnacht Walpurgis Night (), an abbreviation of Saint Walpurgis Night (from the German ), also known as Saint Walpurga's Eve (alternatively spelled Saint Walburga's Eve) and Walpurgisnacht, is the eve of the Christian feast day of Saint Walpurga, an ...

, or the Steps of the Commander'' ("Вальпургиева ночь или Шаги командора") and was working on another play about

Fanny Kaplan Fanny Efimovna Kaplan (; real name Feiga Haimovna Roytblat; ; February 10, 1890 – September 3, 1918) was a Russian Socialist-Revolutionary who attempted to assassinate Vladimir Lenin. She was arrested and executed by the Cheka in 1918. Born i ...

Personal life and death

Venedikt Yerofeyev was married twice. Firstly, to Valentina Vasilevna Zimakova and then Galina Pavlovna Nosova. In 1966 Yerofeyev's wife, Valentina Zimakova gave birth to a son - Venedikt Venediktovich Yerofeyev. Galina Nosova died three years after Yerofeyev - having thrown herself off the balcony of her 13th floor apartment in Moscow. In 1985 Yerofeyev was diagnosed with

throat cancer Head and neck cancer is a general term encompassing multiple cancers that can develop in the head and neck region. These include cancers of the mouth, tongue, gums and lips ( oral cancer), voice box ( laryngeal), throat ( nasopharyngeal, orophar ...

. Doctors operated on him, after which he could only speak using an

Electrolarynx An electrolarynx, sometimes referred to as a "throat back", is a medical device used to produce clearer speech by those people who have lost their voice box, usually due to cancer of the larynx. The most common device is a handheld, battery-oper ...

. A film was made about Moskva-Petushki in the last years of Yerofeyev's life and he can be seen speaking with the help of this apparatus. (eg. at 7:00) In his last years he divided his time between Moscow and

Abramtsevo Abramtsevo () is the name of several rural localities in Russia: * Abramtsevo (selo), Dmitrovsky District, Moscow Oblast, a '' selo'' in Sinkovskoye Rural Settlement of Dmitrovsky District in Moscow Oblast; * Abramtsevo (village), Dmitrovsky Di ...

Moscow Oblast Moscow Oblast (, , informally known as , ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). With a population of 8,524,665 (Russian Census (2021), 2021 Census) living in an area of , it is one of the most densely populate ...

. Yerofeyev died five years after he was first diagnosed with the disease, on 11 May 1990, at the Russian Oncological Centre in Moscow. He is buried in Kuntsevsky cemetery.

References

External links

Москва—Петушки
Russian website dedicated to the work of Venedikt Yerofeyev
Documentary on Venedikt Yerofeyev by Pawel Pawlikowski

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yerofeyev, Venedikt 1938 births 1990 deaths People from Murmansk Oblast Soviet novelists Soviet male writers 20th-century Russian male writers Russian male novelists Postmodern writers Russian surrealist writers 20th-century Russian writers Soviet dissidents Deaths from oral cancer Deaths from cancer in the Soviet Union Burials at Kuntsevo Cemetery