Vladimir Voinovich

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Vladimir Voinovich

Vladimir Nikolayevich Voinovich (alternatively spelled Voynovich, , born September 26, 1932 in Dushanbe

Dushanbe

Dushanbe , population 679,400 people , is the Capital and largest city of Tajikistan. Dushanbe means "Monday" in Tajik language, and the name reflects the fact that the city grew on the site of a village that originally was a popular Monday marketplace....
, Tajikstan) is a prominent Russian writer

Writer

A writer is anyone who creates a written work, although the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, as well as those who have written in many different forms....
and a dissident

Dissident

A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When individual dissidents unite in a common cause they may become known as a dissident Political movement....
. He is a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts

Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts

The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts is the most prominent academic institution in Serbia....
in Department of Language and Literature.

ovich was born to father of Serbian

Serbs

Serbs are a South Slavs people living in the Balkans and Central Europe, mainly in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and, to a lesser extent, in Croatia....
descent, journalist, and mother of Jewish descent, professor of mathematics. His ancestor, Ivo Vojnovic

Ivo Vojnovic

Ivo Vojnovic also Conte Iv?n de Vojnovich was a Croatian language writer from Dubrovnik. He is often nicknamed The last great Dubrovnik writer....
, was a prominent Serbian writer from Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik

||-|File:Main street-Dubrovnik-2.jpg|-|File:Old City, Dubrovnik.jpg|-|File:Dubrovnik-F.Tudjman-Bridge.jpg|-|File:Onofrio's Fountain, Dubrovnik, Croatia.JPG...
.

Voinovich is famous for his satiric

Satire

Satire is often strictly defined as a literary genre; although, in practice, it is also found in the graphic arts and performing arts. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods, ideally with the intent to bring about improv...
fiction

Fiction

Fiction is an imaginative form of narrative, one of the four basic rhetorical modes. Although the word fiction is derived from the Latin fingo, fingere, finxi, fictum, "to form, create", works of fiction need not be entirely imaginary and may include real people, places, and events....
but also wrote some poetry

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literature art in which language is used for its aesthetics and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning ....
.

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Encyclopedia

Vladimir Nikolayevich Voinovich (alternatively spelled Voynovich, , born September 26, 1932 in Dushanbe

Dushanbe

Writer

Dissident

Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts

The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts is the most prominent academic institution in Serbia....
in Department of Language and Literature.

Life

Voinovich was born to father of Serbian

Serbs

Ivo Vojnovic

Ivo Vojnovic also Conte Iv?n de Vojnovich was a Croatian language writer from Dubrovnik. He is often nicknamed The last great Dubrovnik writer....
, was a prominent Serbian writer from Dubrovnik

Dubrovnik

||-|File:Main street-Dubrovnik-2.jpg|-|File:Old City, Dubrovnik.jpg|-|File:Dubrovnik-F.Tudjman-Bridge.jpg|-|File:Onofrio's Fountain, Dubrovnik, Croatia.JPG...
.

Voinovich is famous for his satiric

Satire

Fiction

Poetry

Poetry is a form of literature art in which language is used for its aesthetics and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning ....
. While working for Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital and the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia of the Russian Federation. It is also the largest European cities and metropolitan areas, with the Moscow metropolitan area ranking among the largest urban areas in the world....
radio in the early 1960s, he produced the lyrics for the cosmonauts' anthem

Anthem

The term anthem means either a specific form of Anglican church music , or more generally, a song of celebration, usually acting as a symbol for a distinct group of people, as in the term "national anthem" or "sports anthem"....
, Fourteen Minutes Till the Start ("14 ????? ?? ??????"). Between 1951 and 1955, Voinovich also served in the Soviet Army during peace time.

At the outset of the Brezhnev stagnation

Brezhnev stagnation

Period of stagnation , also known as Brezhnevian Stagnation , the Stagnation Period, or the Era of Stagnation , refers to a period of socio-economic slowdown under Leonid Brezhnev in the history of the Soviet Union that started in the mid-1970s....
period, Voinovich's writings stopped being published in the USSR, but became very popular samizdat

Samizdat

Samizdat was the clandestine copying and distribution of government-suppressed literature or other media in Soviet-bloc countries. Copies were made a few at a time, and those who received a copy would be expected to make more copies....
and in the West

Western world

The term Western world, the West or the Occident can have multiple meanings dependent on its context . Accordingly, the basic definition of what constitutes "the West" varies, expanding and contracting over time, in relation to various historical circumstances....
. For his writing and participation in the human rights

Human rights

Human rights refer to the "basic rights and freedom to which all humans are entitled." Examples of rights and freedoms which have come to be commonly thought of as human rights include civil and political rights, such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of speech, and equality before the law; and social, cultural and economic rights, i...
movement, Voinovich was excluded from the Soviet Writers' Union in 1974, his telephone line was cut off in 1976 and he and his family were forced to emigrate in 1980. He settled in Munich

Munich

Munich is the capital city of Bavaria, Germany. Munich is located on the River Isar north of the Northern Limestone Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg....
, West Germany

West Germany

West Germany was the common English name for the Germany , from its formation in May 1949 to German reunification in October 1990, when East Germany was dissolved and its States of Germany became part of the Federal Republic, ending the more than 40-year division of Germany....
and worked for Radio Liberty.

Voinovich helped publish Vasily Grossman

Vasily Grossman

Vasily Semyonovich Grossman , December 12 1905 – September 14 1964, was a prominent Soviet-era writer and journalist....
's famous novel

Novel

File:2009 stapelweise Neuerscheinungen im Buchladen.JPGA novel is today a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern Romance and in the tradition of the novella....
Life and Fate by smuggling photo films secretly taken by Andrei Sakharov

Andrei Sakharov

Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov was an eminent Soviet Union Nuclear physics physicist, dissident and human rights activist. Sakharov was an advocate of civil liberties and reforms in the Soviet Union....
.

Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a Russian politician. He was the last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985 until 1991, and also the last head of state of the USSR, serving from 1988 until its collapse in 1991....
restored his Soviet citizenship in 1990 and since then the writer spends most of his time in the new Russia. Widowed in 2004, he now lives in Moscow. Voinovich has a son by his first wife and a daughter, Olga, by his second wife, the recently deceased, Irina. Voinovich has won many international awards and honor titles, such as Sakharov Award (2002), State Award of the Russian Federation (2000) and more. Since 1995 he has ventured into graphic arts and sells his paintings in Russian galleries and on the Web.

His work

His magnum opus

Magnum opus

Magnum opus , from the Latin meaning great work, refers to the largest, and perhaps the best, greatest, most popular, or most renowned achievement of an author, artist, or composer....
The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin
The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin

The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin and its sequel, Pretender to the Throne: The Further Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin , is the magnum opus of a Soviet Union dissident writer Vladimir Voinovich....
("????? ? ??????????? ??????????? ??????? ????? ???????") is set in the Red Army

Red Army

The Red Army was the armed force first organized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918 and, in 1922, became the army of the Soviet Union....
during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
, satirically exposing the daily absurdities of the totalitarian

Totalitarianism

Totalitarianism is a concept used to describe political systems whereby a state regulates nearly every aspect of public and private life. Totalitarian regimes or movements maintain themselves in political power by means of an official all-embracing ideology and propaganda disseminated through the state-controlled mass media, single-party st...
regime. "Chonkin" is now a widely known figure in Russia

Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
n popular culture and the book was also made into a film

Film

Film encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the film industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or special effects....
by the famous Czech

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country borders Poland to the northeast, Germany to the west, Austria to the south and Slovakia to the east....
director

Film director

A film director, or filmmaker, is a person who directs the making of a film. A film director visualizes the Screenplay, controlling a film's artistic and dramatic aspects, while guiding the technical crew and actors in the fulfillment of his or her vision....
Jirí Menzel

Jirí Menzel

Jir? Menzel is a Czechs film director, theatre director, actor, and scriptwriter. His films often combine a humanism view of the world with sarcasm....
. Chonkin is often referred to as "the Russian Švejk

The Good Soldier Švejk

The Good Soldier ?vejk is the shortened title of an unfinished work satirical novel by Jaroslav Ha?ek. It was illustrated by Josef Lada and George Grosz after Ha?ek's death....
".

In 1986 he wrote a satire

Satire

Moscow 2042

Moscow 2042 is a 1986 novel by Vladimir Voinovich . In this book, the alter ego of the author travels to the future, where he sees how communism has been built up in Moscow: at first, it seems the government has actually been successful in doing so....
, which satirized Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn was a Russians novelist, dramatist and historian. Through his writings, he made the world aware of the Gulag, the Soviet Union's forced labour camp system, and for these efforts Solzhenitsyn was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1974....
and the Soviet penchant for ludicrous rules. In this novel, Voinovich predicted that Russia will be ruled by the "Communist Party of State Security" which combines the KGB

KGB

KGB is the Russian language abbreviation of Committee for State Security , which was the official name of the umbrella organization serving as the Soviet Union's premier security agency, secret police, and intelligence agency, from 1954 to 1991....
, Russian Orthodox Church

Russian Orthodox Church

The Russian Orthodox Church ; or The Moscow Patriarchate , also known as the Orthodox Christian Church of Russia, is a body of Christianity who constitute an Autocephaly Eastern Orthodox Church under the jurisdiction of the List of Metropolitans and Patriarchs of Moscow, in full communion with the other Eastern Orthodox Churches....
and the Communist party

Communist Party of the Soviet Union

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest Communist Party in the world....
. This party is led by a KGB general Bukashin (name literally meaning "the insect") who met main character of the novel in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
. An extreme Slavophile

Slavophile

Slavophilia is an intellectual movement originating from 19th century that wanted the Russian Empire to be developed upon values and institutions derived from its early history....
Sim Karnavalov (apparently inspired by Solzhenitsyn) enters Moscow on a white horse to support dictator Bukashin in the novel .

His other novels have also won acclaim: Ivankiada, his novel about a writer trying to get an apartment in the bureaucratic clog of the Soviet system. The Fur Hat, is, in many ways, a satire of Gogol's Overcoat
The Overcoat

"The Overcoat" is the title of a short story by Ukraine-born Russian literature author Nikolai Gogol, published in 1842. The story and its author have had great influence on Russian literature, thus spawning Fyodor Dostoevsky's famous quote: "We all come out from Gogol's 'Overcoat'." The story has been adapted into a variety of stage and fi...
. His Monumental Propaganda is a stinging critique of post-Communist Russia, a story that shows the author's opinion that Russians haven't changed much since the days of Stalin

Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death in 1953....
.

Bibliography

1963 I Want to be Honest ("???? ???? ???????")
1967 Two Comrades ("??? ????????")
1963-1970 The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin
The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin

The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin and its sequel, Pretender to the Throne: The Further Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin , is the magnum opus of a Soviet Union dissident writer Vladimir Voinovich....
("????? ? ??????????? ??????????? ??????? ????? ???????") (published 1974, translated in English 1977)
1972 A Degree of Trust ("??????? ???????")
1973 By Means of Mutual Correspondence ("????? ???????? ?????????")
1976 The Ivankiad ("??????????")
1979 Pretender to the Throne: The Further Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin ("?????????? ?? ???????: ????? ??????????? ??????? ????? ???????")
1985 The Anti-Soviet Soviet Union ("????????????? ????????? ????")
1986 Moscow 2042
Moscow 2042

Moscow 2042 is a 1986 novel by Vladimir Voinovich . In this book, the alter ego of the author travels to the future, where he sees how communism has been built up in Moscow: at first, it seems the government has actually been successful in doing so....
("?????? 2042") (translated 1987), Harvest Books (September 24, 1990), ISBN 0-156-62165-7
1988 The Fur Hat ("?????") (translated 1989)
1994 The Design ("???????")
2000 Monumental Propaganda ("?????????????? ??????????") (translated 2004), Overlook TP (June 6, 2006), ISBN 1-585-67811-2
2002 A Portrait Against the Background of a Myth ("??????? ?? ???? ????")

External links

Contains autobiography, art gallery, the transcript of the Writers' Union 1974 meeting, etc.