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Boris Vasilyev
Born	Boris Lvovich Vasilyev (1924-05-21)21 May 1924 Smolensk, Soviet Union
Died	11 March 2013(2013-03-11) (aged 88) Moscow, Russia
Occupation	Writer
Years active	1958–2013
Spouse	Zorya Albertovna Vasilyeva
Awards	Andrei Sakharov Prize for Writer's Civic Courage

Boris Lvovich Vasilyev (Russian: Борис Львович Васильев; 21 May 1924 – 11 March 2013) was a Soviet and Russian writer and screenwriter. He is considered the last representative of the so-called lieutenant prose, a group of former low-ranking Soviet officers who dramatized their traumatic World War II experience.

Biography

Born into a family of Russian nobility. His father Lev Aleksandrovich Vasilyev (1892—1968) came from a dynasty of military officers; he served in the Imperial Russian Army and took part in the First World War in the rank of Poruchik before joining the Red Army. Vasilyev's mother Yelena Nikolayevna Alekseyeva (1892—1978) belonged to a noble Alekseyev family tree that traces its history back to the 15th century; her father was among the founders of the Circle of Tchaikovsky.

In 1941, Boris Vasilyev volunteered for the front line and joined a destruction battalion. He fought as part of the 3rd Guards Airborne Division up until 1943 when he was wounded in action and demobilized. After his World War II service, Vasilyev enrolled at the Malinovsky Tank Academy.

His short novel The Dawns Here Are Quiet was a Soviet bestseller, selling 1.8 million copies within a year after its publication in 1969. It was adapted for the stage and the screen; there is also an opera by Kirill Molchanov, and a Chinese TV series based on the story.

The Dawns Here Are Quiet was the first of Vasilyev's sentimental patriotic tales of female heroism in the Second World War ("Not on the Active List", 1974; "Tomorrow Was the War", 1984) which brought him renown in the Soviet Union, China, and other communist countries. Some of his books give a harsh picture of life in Stalin's Russia.

Vasilyev's short novel Do Not Shoot at White Swans (1973), a milestone of Russian-language environmental fiction, is sharply critical of "the senseless destruction of beautiful creatures and the exploitation of nature for personal gain". It was made into a 1980 Soviet film.

Vasilyev was awarded the USSR State Prize for 1975 and was a member of the jury at the 39th Berlin International Film Festival. In 1989, he quit the Communist Party but grew disillusioned with the Perestroika rather quickly. In October 1993, he signed the Letter of Forty-Two. Late in life, Vasilyev turned to historical fiction based on incidents from medieval Russian chronicles.

Vasilyev died on 11 March 2013 following the deaths of his wife and his adopted son earlier the same year. He was buried at the Vagankovo Cemetery near his wife.

Selected filmography

References

1. "Russia's Soviet-era war novelist Boris Vasilyev dies aged 88: Voice of Russia". 21 May 1924. Archived from the original on 17 April 2013. Retrieved 11 March 2013.
2. ^ Boris Vasilyev (2003). Extraordinary Century. — Moscow: Vagrius, 236 pages. ISBN 5-9560-0135-6 (Autobiography)
3. Boris Vasilyev: Time Heals Wounds interview at the Trud newspaper, 6 May 2005 (in Russian)
4. The Alexeev family article from Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1890—1907 (in Russian)
5. Martin Banham (1995). The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press. p. 656. ISBN 9780521434379
6. Трофименков, Михаил (3 December 2013). "Социалистический сентименталист". p. 15. Retrieved 8 July 2016 – via Kommersant.
7. Rosalind J. Marsh (1986). Soviet Fiction Since Stalin: Science, Politics, and Literature. Taylor & Francis. p. 182. ISBN 978-0709917762
8. "Berlinale: 1989 Juries". berlinale.de. Retrieved 9 March 2011.
9. "ВАСИЛЬЕВ, БОРИС ЛЬВОВИЧ – Энциклопедия Кругосвет". Retrieved 8 July 2016.
10. Писатели требуют от правительства решительных действий. Izvestia (in Russian). 5 October 1993. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
11. Boris Vasilyev's tomb. necropol.ru

External links

• Boris Vasilyev at IMDb

• 1924 births
• 2013 deaths
• 20th-century Russian male writers
• Academicians of the Russian Academy of Cinema Arts and Sciences "Nika"
• Communist Party of the Soviet Union members
• Recipients of the Lenin Komsomol Prize
• Recipients of the Nika Award
• Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 2nd class
• Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 3rd class
• Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples
• Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour
• Recipients of the USSR State Prize
• Russian historical novelists
• Russian memoirists
• 20th-century Russian screenwriters
• Russian male screenwriters
• Soviet Army officers
• Soviet male writers
• Soviet military personnel of World War II
• Soviet screenwriters
• Soviet male screenwriters
• Burials at Vagankovo Cemetery