Georgii Vladimov
Georgii Vladimov, born Georgii Nikolaevich Volosevich in 1931 in Kharkov, Ukraine, was a notable Russian author and activist known for his contributions to literature and human rights. Raised by parents who were literature teachers, his early education at the Suvorov Military School exposed him to alternative perspectives on war, shaping his independent views. After navigating political challenges and the surveillance of his studies at Leningrad University, Vladimov began his literary career, becoming a reviewer for various prestigious publications. His novels, including *Bolshaya ruda* and *Faithful Ruslan*, are recognized for their raw depictions of Soviet life and the gulag system, though they often faced censorship. Active in the human rights movement, he partnered with Amnesty International, which led to his exile in Germany in 1983. Vladimov's works continued to garner acclaim, earning him the Russian Booker Prize and the Andrei Sakharov Prize for civic courage. He passed away in Germany in 2003 and was laid to rest in Moscow, leaving behind a legacy as a powerful voice against oppression.
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Georgii Vladimov
Writer
- Born: February 19, 1931
- Birthplace: Kharkov, Russia (now in Ukraine)
- Died: October 19, 2003
- Place of death: Germany
Biography
Georgii Vladimov was born Georgii Nikolaevich Volosevich in 1931 in Kharkov, a Ukranian city that was then part of the Soviet Union. Both his parents were literature teachers and they divorced when he was only one year old. During the Nazi invasion of Russia, he and his mother went to Kyrgyzstan for a year and then to Saratov. His mother then enrolled him at the Suvorov Military School for Frontier Troops in Georgia. At the school, Vladimov was taught by former military officers, who offered the students an alternative view of the realities of war that contradicted the official government explanation. Here, Vladimov began seriously to develop the independent views that would lead him to become active in the Russian human rights movement.
In 1948, he entered Leningrad University to study law, but his political views brought him under surveillance and he was forced to continue his studies as an external student. He later became a reviewer and reporter for a theater magazine and for the prestigious journals Novyi mir and Literaturnaia gazeta. Meanwhile, his mother, who had been imprisoned for her political views, was released, but she was blind and homeless. He and his mother moved to Moscow in 1956, where Vladimov was the editor of the prose section of Novyi mir. He managed to rehabilitate his mother while the two of them lived in Moscow.
In 1958, he married the critic Larisa Teodorovna Isarova, by whom he had one daughter. They were divorced in 1965, and later that year he married a journalist, Natalia Evheneuna Kuznetsova. In 1960, he worked with General Petr Valilevich on the latter’s wartime memoirs, an experience that gave him the idea for his best-known novel, General i ego Armiia. At the same time, he was conducting research for his first novel, Bolshaya ruda, which was first published in Novyi mir in 1962 and translated as Striking It Rich in 1963. This novel was well received, and Vladimov immediately was allowed to join the Soviet Writers’ Union.
A second novel, Tri minuty molchaniia appeared in Novyi mir in 1969; it was published in book form in 1976 and was translated as Three Minutes’ Silence in 1985. Although the book was a commercial success, it was heavily censored for its raw depiction of Arctic fishermen and their seaport and was banned for the next seven years. His third book, Vernyi Ruslan: Istoriia karaul’noi sobaki (1975; Faithful Ruslan: The Story of a Guard Dog, 1979), deals with the gulag, the forced labor camps established by Joseph Stalin, and describes the effects of prison camp conditioning. Considered to be his best novel, it was only officially published in 1989. His play, Sheshtoi soldat, was banned in 1971, although Vladimov took the theater to court and won.
In 1977, Vladimov became active in Amnesty International and the KGB subsequently advised him to leave the Soviet Union. He went into exile in Germany in1983, working for Russian language magazines and broadcasting outlets. He continued to work on General i ego armiia, the first four chapters of which won him the Russian Booker Prize in 1995; Soviet authorities allowed him to receive the prize in Moscow. The entire novel was published in 1997, and it showed the seamy side of the Red Army during World War II.
Vladimov received the Andrei Sakharov Prize for civic courage in 2001 and the Don Quixote Prize “for the honor and worthiness of his talent” in the same year. He remarried after his second wife died in Germany. Vladimov died in Germany in 2003 and was buried in Moscow.