Veniamin Kaverin
Encyclopedia
Pskov
Pskov is an ancient city and the administrative center of Pskov Oblast, Russia, located in the northwest of Russia about east from the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River. Population: -Early history:...
— May 2, 1989, Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
) was a Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
associated with the early 1920s movement of the Serapion Brothers
Serapion Brothers
The Serapion Brothers was a group of writers formed in Petrograd, Russia in 1921. The group was named after a literary group, Die Serapionsbrüder , to which German romantic author E.T.A. Hoffmann belonged and after which he named a collection of his tales...
. The immunologist Lev Zilber was his older brother, and the critic Yury Tynyanov
Yury Tynyanov
Yury Nikolaevich Tynyanov was a famous Soviet/Russian writer, literary critic, translator, scholar and screenwriter. He was an authority on Pushkin and an important member of the Russian Formalist school.-Life and work:...
was his brother-in-law.
During the WWII
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
evacuation in Yaroslavl
Yaroslavl
Yaroslavl is a city and the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located northeast of Moscow. The historical part of the city, a World Heritage Site, is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl Rivers. It is one of the Golden Ring cities, a group of historic cities...
, Kaverin completed his best-known novel, The Two Captains
The Two Captains
The Two Captains is a novel written by Soviet author Veniamin Kaverin between 1938 and 1944. It is Kaverin's best known work and is considered one of the most popular works of Soviet literature, winning the USSR State Prize in 1946 being reissued 42 times in 25 years...
(1938-44), which colourfully recounts the adventures of Russian polar explorers before and after the Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
. The book, awarded the Stalin Prize in 1946, was reissued 42 times in 25 years and was adapted for the screen twice, in 1955 and 1976. In 1966, Kaverin published a biography of Baron Brambeus
Osip Senkovsky
Józef Julian Sękowski was a Polish-Russian orientalist, journalist, and entertainer.Józef Sękowski was born into an old family of Polish szlachta. During his study in the University of Vilno he became fascinated with all things oriental...
. Later, he worked on his reminiscences about the literary milieu of the 1920s, which contained passages highly critical of Soviet policies in literature.
As The Moscow News commented on his centenary, "Kaverin showed that even under the worst of conditions it is possible to retain one's human qualities and decency. His example is a reproach to so many other Soviet writers who sold their souls to the regime and committed reprehensible public acts". http://english.mn.ru/english/issue.php?2002-16-12
English translations
- Open Book, Lawrence & Wishart, 1955.
- The Unknown Artist, Hyperion Press, 1973.
- Two Captains, Raduga Publishers, 1989.
- Two Captains, Fredonia Books, 2003.
External links
- Veniamin Kaverin in the Encyclopedia of Soviet Writers