Viktor Astafyev
| Viktor Astafyev | |
|---|---|
Viktor Astafyev on a stamp of Abkhazia
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| Born |
1 May 1924 Ovsyanka, Krasnoyarsk Krai |
| Died | 29 November 2001 (aged 77) Krasnoyarsk |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Genre | Fiction |
Viktor Petrovich Astafyev also spelled Astafiev or Astaf'ev (Russian: Ви́ктор Петро́вич Аста́фьев, 1 May 1924 – 29 November 2001), was a prominent Soviet and Russian writer.
Viktor Astafyev was born in the village of Ovsyanka, Krasnoyarsk Krai on the bank of the Yenisei river. His father, Pyotr Pavlovich Astafyev, was a son of a relatively rich mill-owner (a part-time hunter who most of his time though spent at home), mother Lydia Ilyinichna Astafyeva (née Potylitsyna) came from a peasant family. In his 2000 autobiography Viktor Astafyev remembered his father's household as a place where men, led by grandfather Pavel Yakovlevich, were on continuous binge, while all the work was being organized and done by two women, Lydia and her mother-in-law, Maria Osipova, Pavel Yakovlevich's young second wife.
In 1931 two tragedies struck. First Pyotr, Pavel and the latter's father (Astafyev grand-grandfather) Yakov Maximovich were arrested as part of the Dekulakization campaign and sent to a Siberian labour camp. In July 1931 Lydia Ilyinichna, Viktor's mother drowned in the Yenisey as the boat which she was rowing, carrying food to the Krasnoyarsk prison where her arrested husband was kept, got upturned. That year Pyotr Astafyev received 5 years of prison as an "Enemy of the people" and was sent to the infamous Belomorkanal building-site. Seven-year-old Viktor found himself in the house of Yekaterina Petrovna and Ilya Yevgrafovich Potylitsyns, his mother’s parents who gave the boy all their love and care. In 1932 he joined a local primary school. His life in the early 1930s Astafyev later described in his book of short stories The Last Respect (Posledny Poklon, 1968).
In 1934 Pyotr Astafyev returned from labour camp and married again. He took Viktor to his new place, a small forest village Sosnovka, then in 1935 moved the family to Igarka where they settled as spetspereselentsy. Ignored by both his stepmother Taisiya Tcherkasova (who’s by now given birth to her own son, Nikolai) and father, the boy rioted and soon found himself on the street, homeless. In 1937 he was taken in an orphanage and joined the 5th form of its special school which years later he remembered with great affection. Two of the teachers, Rozhdestvensky and Sokolov, noticed artistic and literary abilities in the boy who by this time started to write poetry, and did a lot to encourage him. Years later he remembered:
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