Boris Vasilyev (writer)
| Boris Lvovich Vasilyev | |
|---|---|
| Native name | Борис Львович Васильев |
| Born |
21 May 1924 Smolensk, Soviet Union |
| Died | 11 March 2013 (aged 88) Moscow, Russia |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Years active | 1958–2013 |
| Spouse(s) | Zorya Albertovna Vasilyeva |
| Awards | Andrei Sakharov Prize For Writer's Civic Courage |
Boris Lvovich Vasilyev (Russian: Бори́с Льво́вич Васи́льев; 21 May 1924, Smolensk – 11 March 2013, Moscow) was a 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 dramatised their traumatic World War II experience.
Born into a family of Russian nobility. His father Lev Alexandrovich 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 Elena Nikolaevna Alexeeva (1892—1978) belonged to a noble Alexeev family tree that traces its history back to the XV 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, Vasiliev 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 Vasiliev's sentimental patriotic tales of female heroism in the Second World War ("Not on the Active List", 1974; "Tomorrow There Came 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.
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