Aleksandr Kabakov was a
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
writer and journalist. He was born in 1943 in
Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk (, also ; rus, Новосиби́рск, p=nəvəsʲɪˈbʲirsk, a=ru-Новосибирск.ogg) is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the Russian Census ...
, where his family had been evacuated during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. He studied mechanics and mathematics in
Dnipropetrovsk
Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...
, and worked in a missile factory after graduation. Eventually, he landed at the railroad industry newspaper ', where he worked for more than a decade; he also worked at ''
Moscow News
''The Moscow News'', which began publication in 1930, was Russia's oldest English-language newspaper. Many of its feature articles used to be translated from the Russian language ''Moskovskiye Novosti.''
History Soviet Union
In 1930 ''The Mo ...
'' and ''
Kommersant
''Kommersant'' (russian: Коммерсантъ, , ''The Businessman'' or Commerce Man, often shortened to Ъ) is a nationally distributed daily newspaper published in Russia mostly devoted to politics and business. The TNS Media and NRS Russia ...
''.
He became well known during the
Perestroika
''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated wit ...
period for his
dystopian novel
Utopian and dystopian fiction are genres of speculative fiction that explore social and political structures. Utopian fiction portrays a setting that agrees with the author's ethos, having various attributes of another reality intended to appeal to ...
''No Return'', which was translated into multiple languages and also adapted into a film. The English translation was done by
Thomas Whitney. Other noted works include ''The Last Hero'' (1995) and ''Nothing's Lost'' (2003), which won the second jury prize from the
Big Book Award and the . With
Yevgeny Popov, he co-wrote a book of reminiscences about the writer
Vasily Aksyonov
Vasily Pavlovich Aksyonov ( rus, Васи́лий Па́влович Аксёнов, p=vɐˈsʲilʲɪj ˈpavləvʲɪtɕ ɐˈksʲɵnəf; August 20, 1932 – July 6, 2009) was a Soviet and Russian novelist. He became known in the West as the autho ...
that was shortlisted for the 2012 Big Book Award.
He died in Moscow in 2020.
Works
* Aksyonov (co-written with
Evgeny Popov) – second jury prize,
Big Book Award, 2012
* Nothing's Lost – Big Book Award finalist, 2006, won second jury prize; won the Apollon Grigoriev Prize, 2004
* Moscow Tales – Big Book Award finalist, 2006; won Prose of the Year, 2005; won the , 2006
* No Return (Невозвращенец) (William Morrow & Co., 1990, tr.
Thomas Whitney)
* Anthologies: “Shelter” in ''Read Russia!'' (Read Russia, 2012, tr.
Daniel Jaffe
Daniel Jaffe is an American astronomer, currently the Jane and Roland Blumberg Centennial Professor at University of Texas at Austin. He received his BA, MA, and PhD from Harvard University. Hcurrently servesas the Interim Executive Vice Preside ...
) and ''Life Stories: Original Works'' by Russian Writers (Russian Life, 2009, tr. Anna Seluyanova)
* A Runaway (Беглец), 2009
* The Imposter (Самозванец), 1997
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kabakov, Aleksandr
1943 births
2020 deaths
Writers from Novosibirsk
Russian male journalists
21st-century Russian male writers