Mikhail Alekseyev (writer)
| Mikhail Alekseyev | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
6 May 1918 Saratov Governorate, RSFSR |
| Died | 21 May 2007 (aged 89) Moscow, Russian Federation |
| Genre | fiction, memoirs |
| Subject | War, Soviet village |
Mikhail Nikolayevich Alekseyev (Russian: Михаил Николаевич Алексеев, 6 May 1918, Monastyrskoye village, Saratov Governorate, RSFSR - 21 May 2007, Moscow, Russian Federation) was a Russian Soviet writer and editor, whose two major themes were the Great Patriotic War (Soldiers, 1951, 1959; My Stalingrad, 1993-1998, the Fatherland and Mikhail Sholokhov Prizes) and the life of Soviet peasantry (Unweeping Willow, 1970-1974, the USSR State Prize in 1976). His controversial Fighters (1981) novel was one of the few non-dissident works of the time to bring about the issue of the 1933 Soviet famine. In 1969-1990 Alekseyev edited Moskva magazine.
Mikhail Alekseyev was born in Monastyrskoye village of the Saratov Governorate, to a relatively well-off peasant family. In 1933 his mother died of hunger, a year later his father, a victim of political repressions, died in GULAG. After graduating the secondary school in 1936 Mikhail enrolled into the Training college, then got mobilized into the Red Army and was sent to Irkutsk. In 1940, not long before the demobilization he was sent to the 2-months young politruk's courses.
As the War 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 Golden Prague on 9 May 1945," he wrote later. In 1942 he became the member of the Communist 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 of polkovnik.
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