Mikhail Alekseyev | |
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| Born | (1918-05-06)6 May 1918 Saratov Governorate, RSFSR |
| Died | 21 May 2007(2007-05-21) (aged 89) Moscow, Russian Federation |
| Resting place | Peredelkino Cemetery |
| Alma mater | Maxim Gorky Literature Institute |
| Genre | fiction, memoirs |
| Subject | War, Soviet village |
Mikhail Nikolayevich Alekseyev (Russian:Михаи́л Никола́евич Алексе́ев, 6 May1918,Monastyrskoye,Saratov Governorate,RSFSR - 21 May2007,Moscow,Russian Federation) was aRussian Soviet writer andeditor, writing mostly about theGreat Patriotic War (Soldiers, 1951, 1959;My Stalingrad, 1993-1998, the Fatherland and Mikhail Sholokhov Prizes, respectively) and the life of Soviet peasantry (Unweeping Willow, 1970-1974, theUSSR State Prize in 1976). His controversialFighters (1981) novel was one of the few non-dissident works of the time to bring about the issue of the1933 Soviet famine. In 1969-1990 Alekseyev editedMoskva magazine.[1][2]
Mikhail Alekseyev was born in Monastyrskoye village of theSaratov Governorate, into a peasant family. In 1933 his mother died of famine, a year later his father, a victim of political repressions, died inGULAG. In 1936 he enrolled into the Training college, then got mobilized into theRed Army and was sent toIrkutsk. In 1940, not long before the demobilization he was sent to the 2-months courses forpolitruks.[1]
As theWar 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 GoldenPrague on9 May 1945," he wrote later. In 1942 he became the member of theCommunist Party of the Soviet Union. 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 ofpolkovnik.[1]
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 epicSoldiers (1951-1953,Sibirskiye Ogni magazine), the second part of which,Puti-Dorogi (Endless Roads), came out in 1953.[3] It was followed by two short story collections (Our Lieutenant, 1955,There Were Two Friends, 1958), a novella (The Inheritors, 1957) andDivizionka (Division Newspaper), a 1959 book of documentary non-fiction. His 1961 novelThe Cherry-Сoloured Pool, about the life of Russian village, was welcomed byMikhail Sholokhov, whom Alekseyev later cited as a major influence. In 1966 this book earned him the Maxim Gorky State Prize.[1] It was followed by the novelsBread is a Noun (1964) andKaryukha (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 novelUnweeping Willow (1970, 1974), a vast panorama of the 1930s-1960s rural SovietPrivolzhye, earned him theUSSR State Prize in 1976. Of the films based upon Alekseyev's novels, the best known are director Nikolai Moskalenko'sZhuravushka (1968, afterBread Is a Noun) andRussian Field (1971,Unweeping Willow).[1]
Mikhail Alekseyev's 1981 controversial novelFighters 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 agenocide and the exact figure of its victims has not yet been named," he later wrote. In 1991 another autobiographical novelRyzhonka came out, seen as part of the autobiographical trilogy, started byKaryukha andFighters. In 1993 Alekseyev received the Fatherland Prize for his autobiographical war-time novelMy 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 betweenDon andVolga, without making anything up," he explained.[4]
Alekseyev was a staunchcommunist and, during the ideological feuds between literary 'liberal' and 'patriotic' factions, invariably supported the latter. In 1969 he was among those who signed the infamousOgoniok-published open letter condemningNovy Mir, and never repented. As aMoskva magazine's editor-in-chief he publishedNikolay Karamzin'sHistory of the Russian State in full, which at the time was regarded as a daring challenge to academicianAlexander Yakovlev,perestroika's main ideologist. In 1990s Alekseyev criticizedBoris Yeltsin and his team of reformists. Outraged by thedemolition of the Russian Duma in October 1993, he reacted with the series of angry articles published byZavtra,Sovetskaya Rossiya andPravda. Alekseyev's last novel wasThe Occupants, a sequel toMy Stalingrad.[3]
Mikhail Alekseyev died on 21 May 2007 in Moscow and is interred in thePeredelkino Cemetery.
