Vladimir Tendryakov
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Vladimir Tendryakov () (December 5, 1923 – August 3, 1984) 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 ...
short story writer and novelist.


Biography

He was born at Makarovskaya near Vologda in 1923. His father was a civil servant. In 1941, he was drafted 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 the front as a radio-operator. He was wounded twice; near
Stalingrad Volgograd,. geographical renaming, formerly Tsaritsyn. (1589–1925) and Stalingrad. (1925–1961), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. The city lies on the western bank of the Volga, covering an area o ...
and, more seriously, near
Kharkov Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.
. After his recovery, in 1944, he was demobilized and settled in the
Kirov Oblast Kirov Oblast ( rus, Кировская область, p=ˈkʲirəfskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast) located in Eastern Europe. Its administrative center is the city of Kirov. As of the 2010 census, the population ...
, where he worked as a school teacher. In 1945, he relocated to Moscow and entered the All-Russian State Institute of Cinematography. A year later, he transferred to the
Maxim Gorky Literature Institute The Maxim Gorky Literature Institute () is an institution of higher education in Moscow, Russia. It is located at 25 Tverskoy Boulevard in central Moscow. History The institute was founded in 1933 on the initiative of Maxim Gorky, a writer, foun ...
; graduating in 1951. He had begun to write while still a student and, from 1948 to 1953, published several stories in ''
Ogonyok ''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 ...
''. He became a professional writer in 1955, during the first wave of
Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...
's
destalinization De-Stalinization () comprised a series of political reforms in the Soviet Union after the death of long-time leader Joseph Stalin in 1953, and the thaw brought about by ascension of Nikita Khrushchev to power, and his 1956 secret speech "On t ...
. Most of his works faced some degree of censorship and many were not published until the
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 ...
period. His novel ''Assassinating Mirages'' (''Pokushenie na mirazhi'') (written 1979-1982), which was critical of the Soviet state, remained unpublished until 1987 . After 1964, he served on the editorial board of the journal '. In 1966, he was one of the signatories to the "", opposing
Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (19 December 190610 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until his death in 1982 as well as the fourth chairman of the Presidium ...
's plans to rehabilitate
Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
. In 1967, he became a board member at 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 ...
. Tendryakov as a writer was a foremost ethicist, and most of his works revolve around the problems of moral choice. Thus, his most famous novella "Three, Seven, Ace" (Тройка, Семерка, Туз) is about an ordinary citizen's fear to speak up and save an innocent man from a murder conviction. His novella "Potholes" (Ukhaby) describes an accident victim's life being sacrificed to blind adherence to rules and regulation. His novel ''Assassinating Mirages'' is Tendryakov's masterpiece, containing a lifetime of reflections on issues of ethics, violence, cruelty and difficulty of moral choice (the novel's plot revolves around a physicist's attempt to analyse History by creating a computer model of it, then removing the figure of
Jesus Christ Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
from the equation and studying the differences that result. The answer comes as a complete surprise.) Tendryakov died of a stroke in Moscow in 1984, a year before the beginning of Perestroika.


Works


English translations

*''Son-in-Law'', Moscow, Foreign Languages Publishing House, 956 or 1957 162p. *''Three, Seven, Ace & Other Stories'', tr. by David Alger, Olive Stevens and Paul Falla, London, Harvill Press, 1973, , 252p. Contents: **''Three, Seven, Ace'' **''Justice'' **''Creature of a Day'' *''A Topsy-Turvy Spring: Stories'', Moscow, Progress Publishers, 1978, 413p. *''Donna Anna'', from ''The Wild Beach and Other Stories'', Ardis Publishers, 1992. *''Bread for a Dog'', from ''50 Writers: An Anthology of 20th Century Russian Short Stories'', Academic Studies Press, 2011.


In Russian

*''Находка'' (''Nakhodka'') (1965) *''Не ко двору'' (''Ne ko dvory'') (1954) *''Суд'' (''Sud'') (1960) *''Тройка, семерка, туз'' (''Troika, semerka, tuz'' = ''Three, seven, ace'') (1961) *''Ухабы'' (''Ukhaby'') (1956) *''Путешествие длиной в век'' (''Puteshestvie dlinoj v vek''), in ''Anthology of Modern Science Fiction in 25 volumes'' (''Библиотека современной фантастики''), volume 19, Moscow, Molodaya Gvardiya, 1965 — 1973. *''Ночь после выпуска'' (''Noch' posle vypuska'') (1972) *''Чистые воды Китежа'' (''Chistye vody Kitezha'') *''Покушение на миражи'' (''Pokushenie na mirazhi'')


Notes

* See David Gillespie. "Russian Literature, 1953-1991" in ''The Routledge Companion to Russian Literature'', ed. Neil Cornwell, London, Routledge, 2001, p. 230


External links


Tendryakov BioTendryakon on Ozon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tendryakov, Vladimir 1923 births 1984 deaths People from Vologda Oblast Soviet short story writers Soviet novelists Soviet male writers Maxim Gorky Literature Institute alumni Soviet military personnel of World War II