Vasily Aksenov. His difficult life

Vasily Aksyonov was born on August 20, 1932 in Kazan in the family of Pavel Aksyonov and Evgenia Ginzburg.

When Vasily was not even five, his parents were sentenced to 10 years in prison and labor camps.

The older children, sister Maya and brother Alyosha, were taken in by relatives.

Vasya was sent to an orphanage for children of prisoners.

He was the third youngest child in the family, while being the only common child parents.

Father - Pavel Vasilyevich Aksyonov (1899-1991), was the chairman of the Kazan City Council

and a member of the Bureau of the Tatar Regional Committee of the CPSU.

Mother - Evgenia Solomonovna Ginzburg (1904-1977), worked as a teacher in Kazan

pedagogical institute, then - head of the culture department of the newspaper Krasnaya Tatariya.

Magadan, 1949

In 1938, the brother of P. Aksyonov, Andrey Vasilyevich Aksyonov, managed to find

little Vasya in an orphanage in Kostroma and take him to her.

Vasya lived in the house of Motya Aksyonova (his paternal relative) until 1948,

while his mother Evgenia Ginzburg, having left the camp in 1947 and living in exile in Magadan,

did not get permission for Vasya to visit her in Kolyma.

Many years later, in 1975, Vasily Aksyonov described his Magadan youth

in the autobiographical novel "The Burn".

In 1956, Aksyonov graduated from the 1st Leningrad Medical Institute and received a distribution

to the Baltic Shipping Company, where he was supposed to work as a doctor on long-distance ships.

Later it was mentioned that Aksyonov worked as a quarantine doctor in the Far North,

in Karelia, in the Leningrad Sea Trade Port and in the tuberculosis hospital in Moscow

(according to other sources, he was a consultant at the Moscow Research Institute of Tuberculosis).

Meeting with father Pavel Aksenov, who returned from exile after 15 years in prison

His first play, Colleagues, was released in 1959.

And since 1960, Aksyonov has become a professional writer.

Poems by Gennady Shpalikov

Film 1962

In the 1960s, the works of V. Aksyonov were often published in the journal Yunost.

For several years he has been a member of the editorial board of the journal.

Back in March 1963, at a meeting with the intelligentsia in the Kremlin, Nikita Khrushchev

subjected Aksenov, together with Andrei Voznesensky, to devastating criticism.

Vasily Aksenov and Andrey Voznesensky

in Moscow against the alleged rehabilitation of Stalin and was detained by combatants.

In 1967-1968, he signed a number of letters in defense of dissidents, for which he received a reprimand.

with entry in a personal file from the Moscow branch of the Union of Writers of the USSR.

Vasily Aksenov and Robert Rozhdestvensky

In the 1970s, after the end of the "thaw", Aksyonov's works ceased to be

publish in your home country. The novels The Burn (1975) and The Island of Crimea (1979) from the very beginning

became more and more harsh: such epithets as “non-Soviet” and “non-people” were used.

In 1977-1978, Aksyonov's works began to appear abroad, primarily in the United States.

Vasily Aksyonov wrote his famous novel "The Island of Crimea" in 1977-1979,

partly during his stay in Koktebel.

In 1978, V. Aksyonov, together with Andrey Bitov, Viktor Erofeev, Fazil Iskander,

Evgeny Popov and Bella Akhmadulina became the organizer and author of an uncensored

almanac "Metropol", never published in the Soviet censored press.

The Almanac was published in the USA. All participants in the almanac were subjected to "study".

In protest against the subsequent expulsion of Popov and Erofeev from the Union

writers of the USSR in December 1979 Aksyonov, as well as Inna Lisnyanskaya and Semyon Lipkin,

announced their withdrawal from the joint venture.

The history of the almanac is set out in the novel with the key "Say" raisins "".

Vasily Aksenov, Vladimir Vysotsky and Viktor Erofeev

Until 2004 he lived in the USA. Since 1981, Vasily Aksyonov has been a professor of Russian literature

at various US universities: Kennan Institute (1981-1982),

George Washington University (1982-1983), Goucher College (1983-1988),

George Mason University (1988-2009).

In 1980-1991, as a journalist, he actively collaborated with Voice of America and Radio Liberty.

Collaborated with the magazine "Continent" and the almanac "Verb".

Joseph Brodsky, Ellendea Proffer, Masha Slonim and Vasily Aksenov visiting the Proffers in Ann Arbor.

1975 In the United States came out written by Aksyonov in Russia, but first published only after his arrival

writer to America novels "Our Golden Iron" (1973, 1980), "Burn" (1976, 1980),

"The Island of Crimea" (1979, 1981), a collection of short stories "The Right to the Island" (1981).

For the first time after nine years of emigration, Aksyonov visited the USSR in 1989 at the invitation of

American Ambassador J. Matlock. In 1990, Aksyonov was returned to Soviet citizenship.

IN Lately lived with his family in Biarritz, France, and in Moscow.

The Moscow Saga trilogy (1992) was filmed in Russia in 2004 by A. Barshchevsky in a serial

television series.

In 1992, he actively supported Gaidar's reforms.

In his words: "Gaidar kicked Mother Russia."

In 1993, during the dispersal of the Supreme Council, he stood in solidarity with the signatories of the letter

in support of B.N. Yeltsin.

was hospitalized in hospital No. 23, where he was diagnosed with a stroke.

A day after hospitalization, Aksyonov was transferred to the Sklifosovsky Research Institute,

where he underwent surgery to remove a carotid thrombus.

and operated on. Later Aksyonov was transferred back to the Sklifosovsky Research Institute.

at the Sklifosovsky Research Institute.

In Kazan, the house where the writer lived in his adolescence was restored, and in November 2009

there is a Museum of his work.

Personal life of Vasily Aksenov:

First wife - Kira Ludvigovna Mendeleva (1934-2013), daughter of a brigade commander

Layosha (Ludwig Matveyevich) Gavro and the granddaughter of a famous pediatrician and healthcare organizer

Yulia Aronovna Mendeleva (1883-1959), founder and first rector of the Leningrad

pediatric medical institute (1925-1949).

Vasily Aksenov and Kira Mendeleva

With son Alexei, 1961

The second wife is Maya Afanasyevna Aksyonova (nee Zmeul, Ovchinnikova in her first marriage,

in her second marriage, married to R. L. Carmen; genus. 1930), graduated from the Institute of Foreign Trade,

worked at the Chamber of Commerce, taught Russian in America.

With second wife Maya

Vasily and Maya Aksenov on their wedding day. With Boris Messerer and Belloi Akhmadulinoi.

Vasily and Maya Aksenov were a beautiful couple.

Years of life: from 08/20/1932 to 07/06/2009

Russian writer and poet, playwright, screenwriter and translator.

Vasily Aksyonov was born on August 20, 1932 in Kazan. He was the third, youngest child in the family, and the only common child of his parents. His father, Pavel Vasilyevich Aksenov, was the chairman of the Kazan City Council and a member of the bureau of the Tatar Regional Party Committee, and his mother, Evgenia Semyonovna Ginzburg, worked as a teacher at the Kazan Pedagogical Institute, then she was the head of the culture department of the Krasnaya Tatariya newspaper, and was a member of the Kazan regional party organization.

In 1937, the parents were repressed. Subsequently, Evgenia Ginzburg became the author of the book of memoirs " steep route"- one of the first memoirs about the era Stalinist repressions and camps. After the arrest of his parents, five-year-old Vasya was sent to an orphanage. Two years later, his father's brother found him and took him to him. In 1948 E.S. Ginzburg, who at that time lived in a settlement in Magadan, obtained permission for her son to come to her. Evgenia Ginzburg described the meeting with Vasya in the book "The Steep Route".

Magadan impressed Vasily Aksenov with his freedom - in the evenings a real "salon" gathered in his mother's barracks. In the company of "former camp intellectuals" they talked about such things that Vasily had not suspected before. The future writer was shocked by the breadth of the problems discussed and the arguments about the fate of mankind. Many years later, in 1975, Vasily Aksyonov described his Magadan youth in his autobiographical novel Burn.

In Magadan, Vasily Aksenov graduated from high school. After he graduated from the 1st Leningrad Medical Institute in 1956, he worked as a quarantine doctor in the Far North, in Karelia, in the Leningrad Commercial Sea Port and in a tuberculosis hospital in Moscow.

In 1958, Aksyonov's first stories "Torches and Roads" and "One and a half medical units" were published in the magazine "Youth", and in 1960 his first story "Colleagues" was published, based on which the film of the same name was subsequently shot. Thanks to this story, Aksyonov became widely known. He left medicine and came to grips with literature.

Many of them early works Vasily Aksyonov - the novels "Star Ticket", "It's time, my friend, it's time", the novels "Oranges from Morocco" and "It's a pity that you weren't with us" caused a mixed reaction from the authorities. After that, in 1963, the leadership of the Yunost magazine persuaded him to write and publish in the Pravda newspaper a penitential article, Responsibility. Later, his satirical story "The Overstocked Barrel", written in 1968, also became the reason for accusing the author of "hidden anti-Sovietism".

In 1972, Aksyonov wrote an experimental novel, The Search for a Genre. Then in 1972, together with O. Gorchakov and G. Pozhenyan, he wrote a parody novel on the spy thriller "Gene Green - Untouchable" under the pseudonym Grivadiy Gorpozhaks (a combination of names and surnames of real authors). In 1976 Aksenov transferred from English novel E. L. Doctorow "Ragtime".

In the 1970s, after the end of the "thaw", Aksyonov's works ceased to be published in the Soviet Union. The novels "Burn" in 1975 and "Island of Crimea" in 1979 were created by the author from the very beginning without any expectation of publication. At this time, criticism of Vasily Aksyonov and his works became more and more harsh - such epithets as "non-Soviet" and "non-folk" were used. In 1977 and 1978, Aksyonov's works began to appear abroad, primarily in the United States.

His friends recalled: "He was untouchable in his own way and was respected even among those writers who belonged to a completely different" camp. "A certain reverence was felt for him, even the secretaries of the Union called him Vasily Pavlovich." However, after the "Metropol" everything changed.

In 1979, Vasily Aksyonov, together with Andrei Bitov, Viktor Erofeev, Fazil Iskander, Evgeny Popov and Bella Akhmadulina, became one of the organizers and authors of the uncensored almanac Metropol. Never published in the Soviet censored press, the almanac was published in the USA. In protest against the subsequent exclusion of Popov and Erofeev from the Writers' Union of the USSR, in December 1979 Vasily Aksyonov, Inna Lisnyanskaya and Semyon Lipkin announced their withdrawal from the Writers' Union.

On July 22, 1980, Aksyonov left for the United States at the invitation, after which he was deprived of Soviet citizenship with his wife Maya Karmen. Until 2004, he lived in the US, teaching Russian literature at John Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. This is how Aksyonov explained what happened: “There is an opinion that a Russian writer cannot write outside of Russia. That as soon as he gets abroad, he starts whining, suffocating and ends his life in the nearest ditch. This is not entirely true if we remember the experience of Gogol, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, who spent abroad long years and wrote there far from the worst of their things. That is how my destiny was. When you leave your homeland forever, you experience stress, then you start to somehow deal with it, come to your senses and suddenly realize that you can write wonderfully.

Since 1981, Vasily Aksyonov has been a professor of Russian literature at various US universities: he worked at the Kennan Institute from 1981 to 1982, at the University of George Washington from 1982 to 1983, at Gaucher University from 1983 to 1988, at George Mason University from 1988 to 2009.

The novels “Our Golden Iron” (1973, 1980), “The Burn” (1976, 1980), “The Island of Crimea” (1979, 1981), a collection of short stories written by Aksyonov in Russia, but first published only after the writer’s arrival in America, were published in the USA in the USA. "Right to the Island" (1981). Also in the USA, Vasily Aksyonov wrote and published new novels: Paper Landscape, Say Raisins, In Search of a Sad Baby, the Moscow Saga trilogy, a collection of short stories Negative goodie"," New sweet style ", dedicated to the life of the Soviet emigration in the United States," Caesar's glow ".

For the first time after nine years of emigration, Aksyonov visited the USSR in 1989 at the invitation of the American Ambassador J. Matlock. In 1990, Vasily Aksyonov was returned to Soviet citizenship, after which the writer lived in Moscow and traveled to Biarritz in France, where he had a house since 2002.

From 1980 to 1991, Vasily Aksyonov, as a journalist, actively collaborated with Voice of America and Radio Liberty. Collaborated with the magazine "Continent" and the almanac "Verb". Aksenov's radio essays were published in the author's collection "A decade of slander" in 2004.

Vasily Aksyonov was married twice. His first wife is Kira Mendeleeva, a girl from a very famous family. Her father is the brigade commander Lajos Gavro, and her grandmother Yulia Aronovna Mendeleeva is the first rector of a pediatric university in Leningrad. In this marriage, the only son of Aksyonov, Alexei, was born.

The second wife of the writer was Maya Afanasievna Karmen, ex-wife famous documentary filmmaker Roman Karmen. Maya Aksenov called main passion all his life.

Aksyonov was fond of historical literature He was especially interested in the 18th century. They read many books on history sailing fleet. From his student days, he was fond of jazz. Among his sports passions were jogging and basketball. Vasily Pavlovich was not deprived human weaknesses. His bad habit was smoking. The writer did not hide this, in one of his many interviews he said: "I smoked a pipe at the age of 22, when I imagined myself as Hemingway. But the cigarette was always more pleasant. Later, Marina Vlady gave me a cool pipe. I walked with her for a very long time."

They wrote about Aksyonov that it was he who in the 1960s "first introduced the word" jeans "into the Russian language and made them his uniform." "He walked, so denim and so jazzy," Bella Akhmadulina recalled. And the writer Yevgeny Popov, congratulating the writer on his anniversary, noted: "From Aksyonov's denim jacket, as from Gogol's Overcoat, all modern Russian literature came out."

“He was distinguished by amazing power, and our literature without him, of course, was empty,” considered the writer Dmitry Bykov. “And most importantly, he was a good person, which almost never happens among us. that I don't know any young writer who could write such a daring composition as "Moscow Kva-Kva", so striking in courage, an absolutely Platonic experiment.

On January 15, 2008, Aksyonov suddenly became ill while he was driving a car. There was an accident, Vasily Aksyonov was urgently hospitalized in the 23rd hospital, from which he was transferred to the Sklifosovsky Institute. Aksyonov was found to have a blood clot in the carotid artery that feeds left hemisphere brain. After a long illness, Vasily Aksenov died on July 6, 2009. He was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery.

Since 2007, Kazan has been hosting a literary and musical international festival called "Aksenov-fest". For the first time it was held with the personal participation of Vasily Pavlovich.

Opened in 2009 Literary House-Museum Vasily Aksenov, it now has a literary city club.

In 2010, the autobiographical unfinished novel of the writer "Lend-Lease" was released. Its presentation took place on November 7 at the Vasily Aksenov House-Museum.

The writer was a member Russian Academy arts.

Evgeny Popov and Alexander Kabakov in 2011 jointly published a book of memoirs about Vasily Pavlovich, which they called "Aksenov". In it, they consider the writer's fate, the intricacies of biography, the process of the birth of a great Personality. the main task and the idea of ​​the book is to prevent the distortion of facts in favor of certain events.

Writer's Awards

2004 - Winner of the "Booker - Open Russia" behind best novel of the year "Voltairians and Voltairians"
2005 - Awarded the Order of Arts and Letters, one of the highest awards in France
Doctor of Humane Letters (USA)
Member of the PEN Club and the American Authors' League

Bibliography

Prose
1960 - (novel)
1961 - "(novel)
1963 - (novel)
1964 - "Catapult" (story and stories)
1964 - (novel)
1964 - "Halfway to the Moon", (collection of short stories)
1965 - "Victory" (story with exaggeration)
1965 - "It's a pity that you weren't with us" (story)
1968 - (novel)
1969 - (novel)
1971 - "The Story of a Basketball Team Playing Basketball" (feature)
1972 - (novel)
1972 - (novel)

Vaxon Akson, Gravadiy Gorpozhaks - pseudonyms; Aksenov Vasily Pavlovich; Kazan, Russia; 08/20/1932 - 07/06/2009

Vasily Aksenov is a fairly significant figure in world literature. His works have been translated into many languages ​​of the world. Nevertheless, Vasily Aksenov's books received most of the awards in Russia. And one of the most significant of them can be called the Russian Booker Prize, which the writer was awarded in 2009. The writer's contribution can also be assessed by screen adaptations of Aksenov's books. On this moment there are 4 of them, but given the number of scripts written by the writer, this number may increase.

Biography of Vasily Aksenov

Vasily Pavlovich Aksyonov was born in 1932 in Kazan. His father was the chairman of the Kazan City Council, and his mother was a teacher at the Kazan Institute. In addition, she was in charge of the culture department at the local newspaper. But in 1937, both parents were arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Four-year-old Vasily was sent to an orphanage for the children of political prisoners. Only a year later, his father's brother managed to pick him up from his grandfather and take him to a relative in Kostroma. Vasily Aksenov lived here until 1948. By this time, his parents had served time and the mother managed to get her son to move to her in Magadan. She was not allowed to go to Kostroma. In 1956 Aksenov graduated from the Leningrad Medical Institute. By distribution, he was sent to the Baltic Fleet. But he did not receive any paperwork. Therefore, he worked in the Far North, then in Leningrad, and then he managed to move to Moscow.

Around this time, Aksenov declared himself as a writer. His debut was the story "One and a half medical units", which was published in 1959. It became possible to read the first story by Vasily Aksenov in 1960. The work was called "Colleagues" and became a reworking of Aksenov's play of the same name, written in collaboration a year earlier. A film adaptation of this story was released in 1962. Then there was another story - "Star Ticket", which was also filmed in 162 under the title "My younger brother". Soon several more works of the writer will be published, which are published in the magazine "Youth". But in 1966, Vasily Aksenov succumbs to criticism from Nikita Khrushchev. In the same year, he participated in a rally on Red Square against the rehabilitation of Stalin. In later years, he regularly signed petitions in defense of dissidents. All this led to the fact that by 1970 Aksenov's books completely ceased to be published.

But Vasily Pavlovich does not stop working. In 1975, he wrote the novel "The Burn", initially assuming that it would not be possible to publish it in the USSR. In 1977, the writer visits the United States several times until he emigrates there completely in 1980. Almost immediately, he was deprived of Soviet citizenship. In the USA, Aksenov works as a professor of the Russian language at various universities. Here he publishes many of his new works. In addition, he works as a journalist for Radio Liberty and Voice of America. Aksenov again visits the USSR only in 1989, and in 1990 he was returned to Soviet citizenship.

With the beginning of the 90s, the books of Vasily Aksenov, like those, begin to appear in our country. At the same time, not only the old works of the writer are published, but also new books. The writer actively supports the reforms of Gaidar, as well as Boris Yeltsin as head of state. In 2004, Aksenov's novel "Voltaireans and Voltaireans" was published, which in the same year was awarded the Russian Booker Prize. In early 2008, the writer had a stroke. After a long treatment in the summer of 2009, Vasily Petrovich Aksenov died.

Books by Vasily Aksenov on the Top Books website

Vasily Aksenov's books are quite popular to read in our country. This popularity was especially active after the release of the film " mysterious passion which was released in 2015. This film adaptation aroused interest in the writer's work and allowed his works to get into our rating. In addition, Aksenov's novels are presented in our rating. And given the high interest in the writer's work, this is far from the limit.

Vasily Aksyonov list of books

1. Aurora Gorelik
2. Oranges from Morocco
3. Aristophaniana with frogs
4. Ah, Arthur Schopenhauer.
5. paper landscape
6. In search of a sad baby
7. Voltaireans and Voltaireans
8. Always on sale
9. Woe, woe, burn
10. Jean Green untouchable
11. It's a pity you weren't with us
12. egg yolk
13. overstocked barrel
14. star ticket
15. Our Golden Iron
16. Catapult
17. Cesarean glow
18. Colleagues
19. Round the clock non-stop
20. lend-lease
21. Catch pigeon mail
22. Lion's lair. Forgotten stories
23. Love for electricity
24. My grandfather is a monument
25. Moscow Kva-Kva
26. Halfway to the Moon
27. New sweet style
28. One solid Caruso
29. Crimea Island
30. Victory
31. Searching for a genre
32. One and a half medical units
33. It's time my friend, it's time
34. A story about a basketball team playing basketball
35. rare earths
36. Sviyazhsk
37. say raisins
38. steel bird

Writer, screenwriter Vasily Pavlovich Aksenov was born on August 20, 1932 in Kazan in the family of a party leader. Parents were repressed, until the age of 16 Vasily Aksenov was brought up in orphanage, then at the aunt. For several years he lived in Magadan, where his mother, Evgenia Ginzburg, was in the settlement. famous novel about the Stalinist camps "The Steep Route". In Magadan, Aksenov graduated high school.

The first stories of Vasily Aksenov "Torches and Roads" and "One and a half medical units" were published in 1958 in the journal "Youth", gained fame after the publication in 1960 of the story "Colleagues", which was soon made into a movie of the same name.

Written in the early 1960s, the stories "Star ticket", "Oranges from Morocco", the stories "Local bully Abramashvili", "Comrade handsome Furazhkin", "It is a pity that you were not with us" and others were labeled by critics as "youth prose".

In 1975, the novel "Burn" was written, and in 1979 - "Island of Crimea", banned for publication by censors.

In 1976 he translated from English popular novel Edgar Doctorow "Ragtime".

In 1979, together with Andrei Bitov, Viktor Erofeev, Fazil Iskander, Evgeny Popov, Bella Akhmadulina, Aksenov became one of the organizers and authors of the uncensored literary almanac Metropol, published in the United States.

In December 1979, he announced his withdrawal from the Writers' Union of the USSR in protest against the expulsion of Viktor Erofeev and Evgeny Popov from the Union.

Since 1981, Aksenov has been a professor of Russian literature at various US universities: Kennan Institute (1981-1982), George Washington University (1982-1983), Gaucher University (1983-1988), George Mason University (1988-2004). He led a seminar for many years" Contemporary romance- the elasticity of the genre", and then the course "Two Centuries of the Russian Novel", was fond of the teachings of Shklovsky, Tynyanov, Bakhtin.

In 1980-1991, Vasily Aksenov, as a journalist, actively collaborated with Radio Liberty.

The novels "The Burn", "The Island of Crimea", "Our Golden Piece of Iron" written by him in the USSR, but first published only after the writer's departure for the United States, were published in Washington.

In the USA, Aksenov wrote and published new novels: "Paper Landscape" (1982), "Say Raisins" (1985), "In Search of a Sad Baby" (1986), the Moscow Saga trilogy (1989, 1991, 1993), a collection short stories "Goodie Negative" (1995), "Sweet New Style" (1996). The novel "The Yolk of an Egg" (1989) was written by Aksenov in English and then translated by the author into Russian.

In 1989, for the first time after a long break, Aksyonov visited the USSR at the invitation of the American Ambassador Jack Matlock.

Since the late 1980s, it began to be published again in Russia. After his citizenship was returned to him in 1990, Aksyonov often came to Russia, his works were published, including in the journal Yunost, and a collection of his works was published.

In June 1999, the first Aksenov Readings took place in Moscow, to which the writer arrived from the USA.

Since 2002, Aksenov has lived in France, in Biarritz.

In 2004, he was awarded the title of honorary professor at George Mason University (USA).

In April 2007, Aksenov's next novel, Rare Earths, was published in Moscow.

Vasily Aksenov - author of the plays "Always on Sale", "Your Killer", "Four Temperaments", "Aristophanian with Frogs", "Heron", "Woe, Woe, Burn", "Aurora Korelik", "Ah, Arthur Schopenhauer" and screenplays of the films "When the Bridges Are Raised", "My Little Brother", "Marble House", "Central", "While the Dream Goes Mad". His the best thing the writer considered the novel "Sweet New Style".

In 2009, after the death of the author, the last completed novel by Vasily Aksenov was published - "Mysterious passion. A novel about the sixties", in 2010 an unfinished autobiographical novel "Lend leasing. Lend leasing" was published.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Vasily Pavlovich Aksenov (1932-2009) - Russian writer, playwright and translator, he was born in Kazan on August 20, 1932. His novels were repeatedly banned, the prose writer was called "non-Soviet and non-folk". Because of this, the writer even had to leave his homeland for a while. But from childhood he got used to moving and persecution, because Vasya was only four years old when his parents were arrested. Based on the works of this author, films were repeatedly made, performances were staged in different theaters. His most popular works were the novels "It's time, my friend, it's time", "Oranges from Morocco" and the novel "Star Ticket". Critics defined the genre of the writer as "youth prose".

Relationships in the family

The future writer was the third child in the family of Pavel and Evgenia Aksenov. The father and mother already had a daughter and a son, but from previous marriages. Vasya became their first joint child His parents waited for him for a long time and loved him very much. Pavel was a member of the bureau of the regional committee of the CPSU and chairman of the city council. His wife taught at one of the local universities, later she managed to head the culture department in the Krasnaya Tatariya newspaper. Yevgenia Ginzburg also wrote and published a memoir about Stalin's concentration camps, The Steep Route.

In 1937, Vasily's parents were arrested. Brother Aleksey and sister Maya were taken away by relatives, and the four-year-old boy was sent to an orphanage with other children of political prisoners. There he spent two years until Andreyan Aksenov, Pavel's brother, arrived. Uncle took his nephew to Kazan, the next ten years of the boy's life were spent there. Only in 1948 did the mother manage to leave the Kolyma camps and return her son. Together with his mother, Aksyonov moved to Magadan. There he graduated from high school. Memories of life span the prose writer will later describe in the novel The Burn.

In 1956 the young man graduated medical university in Leningrad. According to the distribution, he had to work as a doctor on the ships of the Baltic Shipping Company. But because of his parents, Vasya could not get permission, he had to look for another job. He was a quarantine doctor in Kaleria, in the port of Leningrad, then got a job at the Moscow Research Institute of Tuberculosis.

First publications

In 1958, Aksenov's first stories were published. The magazine "Youth" published the works "Torches and roads" and "One and a half medical units." But they did not bring fame to the novice writer. It was only after the publication of Colleagues in 1960 that he began to be taken seriously. Soon, a film of the same name was released based on her motives.

After some time, the novel "Star Ticket" was published, which was also filmed. The film was called "My Little Brother". Aksyonov also tried himself as a playwright by publishing the play "Always on Sale". Later, it was staged by members of the troupe of the Sovremennik Theater.

In the early 60s, Vasily Pavlovich released several collections ("Catapult", "Halfway to the Moon") and individual stories. Among them are “Local hooligan Abramashvili”, “It is a pity that you were not with us” and “Comrade beautiful Furazhkin”. In 1968 was published fantasy story with elements of the satire "Overstocked Barrel".

Government Aggression

Every day Aksenov's works became more and more popular. He was accepted into the editorial board of the magazine "Youth", published in various print media. In the seventies, Vasily released a dilogy for children - "My grandfather's monument" and "A chest in which something knocks." In 1972, an experimental novel called The Search for a Genre was published. In the same year, the parody "Jean Green - Untouchable" was published, co-authored with Gorchakov and Pozhenyan. In 1976 Aksenov translated Doctorow's Ragtime from English.

The writings of the prose writer were constantly criticized by the government. In 1963, Nikita Khrushchev gave the writer a "scandal" at a demonstration meeting with the intelligentsia in the Kremlin. There he scolded the poet Voznesensky. main reason such an attitude was the free behavior of writers. They participated in demonstrations on Red Square (after this incident, Aksyonov was detained by vigilantes). In the late 1960s, Vasily signed letters in defense of dissidents. For this, he was reprimanded and entered into a personal file.

Forced emigration

When the “thaw” ended, prose writing was no longer published in the USSR. He had a premonition of this, so the novels "The Burn" and "The Island of Crimea" were published much later, already in the USA. The Metropol almanac, created by Vasily together with Bitov, Akhmadulina, Iskander, Popov and Erofeev, was also published there. The last two were soon expelled from the Writers' Union. In protest, several writers, including Aksyonov, left this society on their own. He later wrote about these events in the novel Say Raisins.

In July 1980, a talented prose writer was invited to the United States. He agreed, and immediately after his departure was deprived of citizenship of the USSR. For ten years he worked in America as a professor of literature at various universities. Aksyonov was also a journalist for Radio Liberty and Voice of America. His radio essays were often published in local almanacs, and later even the collection “A Decade of Slander” was published.

After the move, Vasily wrote several new novels - "Paper Landscape", "In Search of a Sad Baby" and "The Moscow Saga". The last of them was published in three books, later a TV series based on it was filmed. Dmitry Barshchevsky acted as the director. At the same time, a collection of short stories "The New Sweet Style" was published, which told about life after emigration.

In 1989 Aksyonov published the novel The Yolk of an Egg, written in English language. Later he translated it into Russian. In the same year, the writer received an invitation to visit the USSR from the American Ambassador Jack Matlock. In 1990, citizenship was returned to him, but the prose writer did not want to return to his homeland. His works were again published in Russia, Vasily was even repeatedly awarded.

last years of life

In 2002, together with his family, the writer moved to Bearizze. Last years Aksenov were held in France, but he often visited Moscow. In 2004 he received the Booker Prize for Voltaireans and Voltaireans. IN next year the writer released a kind of diary of memories called "The Apple of the Eye". Also in 2005 he was awarded the French Order of Letters and Arts.

In January 2008, the writer was hospitalized in Moscow Hospital No. 23 with a stroke. A day later, he was transferred to the Sklifosovsky Research Institute, and a carotid thrombus was removed. Within six months, Aksenov's condition was diagnosed as "stably severe." On March 5, 2009, he was operated on again due to complications. On July 6 of the same year, Vasily Pavlovich died in Moscow. He was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery.

Latest novels prose was published after his death. One of them was released in October 2009, it was called “Mysterious Passion. A novel about the sixties "and was autobiographical. In the second work, Aksenov also described his life and memories, but did not have time to finish it. This novel was called "Lend Lease" and was released in 2010.

During his life, Vasily Pavlovich was married twice. His first wife was Kira Mendeleeva, daughter of the first rector of a pediatric university in Leningrad. The girl gave birth to her beloved son Alexei. Their relationship ended after the prose writer met with Maya Carmen, the wife of a famous documentary filmmaker. Aksyonov fell in love with a woman without memory, left his family for her sake. Together they moved to the USA, where Maya taught Russian. She remained with her beloved until his death.