Benedikt Sarnov (russian: Бенеди́кт Миха́йлович Сарно́в; January 4, 1927 – April 20, 2014) was a Moscow

literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

, historian of Soviet literature, and writer. After graduating from

Maxim Gorky Literature Institute The Maxim Gorky Literature Institute (russian: Литературный институт им. А. М. Горького) is an institution of higher education in Moscow. It is located at 25 Tverskoy Boulevard in central Moscow. History The insti ...

in 1951, he became a member of

Union of Soviet Writers The Union of Soviet Writers, USSR Union of Writers, or Soviet Union of Writers (russian: Союз писателей СССР, translit=Soyuz Sovetstikh Pisatelei) was a creative union of professional writers in the Soviet Union. It was founded ...

in 1960. He worked in the magazine

Literaturnaya Gazeta ''Literaturnaya Gazeta'' (russian: «Литературная Газета», ''Literary Gazette'') is a weekly cultural and political newspaper published in Russia and the Soviet Union. It was published for two periods in the 19th century, and ...

, created a popular literary radio program and authored a column about Russian prose in

Ogonek The (; Polish: , "little tail", diminutive of ) is a diacritic hook placed under the lower right corner of a vowel in the Latin alphabet used in several European languages, and directly under a vowel in several Native American languages. It i ...

. In 1990s he became Secretary of the Moscow Writers' Union, a part of

Union of Russian Writers The Union of Russian Writers (russian: Союз российских писателей, translit=Soyuz rossiyskikh pisateley) is a non-governmental organization uniting Russian and writers (novelists, poets, essayists, etc.). It was established i ...

. He has published over twenty books, and hundreds of articles and reviews, and continued to be active in the post-Soviet period. His most recent books were about relationships of Stalin and Soviet writers and other intellectuals He died in 2014.

Bibliography

* Наш советский новояз. Маленькая энциклопедия реального социализма. (''Our Soviet Newspeak: A Short Encyclopedia of Real Socialism.'') (Moscow: 2002) * Перестаньте удивляться: непридуманные истории (Moscow: 1998) has been translated into English and was published under the title ''Stop Being Surprised! Vignettes from Soviet Literary and Other Life'' by Infinity Publishing in 2004, .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sarnov Soviet memoirists 1927 births 2014 deaths Soviet literary historians Soviet male writers Russian parodists Maxim Gorky Literature Institute alumni