CHUKOVSKY, Korney Ivanovich, Soviet translator and children’s writer, 1882–1969. Author of much-loved nonsense verse and the doyen of the Soviet school of literary translation. He is reputed to be the only Soviet writer to have officially congratulated Boris Pasternak on winning the Nobel Prize.
DE RADA, Jeronim, Italo-Albanian writer, 1814–1903. A romantic nationalist from the Albanian-speaking community of southern Italy (the Arbëresh), de Rada wrote verse and prose in both Italian and Albanian, and is among the founding fathers of modern Albanian literature.
DRUZIN, Valery, editor of the literary magazine Zvezda, (1947–1957), deputy editor of Literturnaya gazeta (1957–1960), and professor at the Gorky Institute.
FADEYEV, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich, Russian writer, 1901–1956. Author of The Young Guard (1945), a novel of the heroic actions of a Komsomol unit during the Second World War. A fervent Stalinist and an alcoholic, Fadeyev committed suicide not long after Stalin’s demise.
FEDIN, Konstantin Alexandrovich, Russian writer, 1892– 1977, president of the Union of Soviet Writers from 1959.
GONCHAROV, Yuri, student at the Gorky Institute, 1958–1960.
KÁDÁR, János, Hungarian, politician, 1912–1989. Although a high-ranking official between 1945 and 1949, Kádár was arrested on trumped-up charges and brutally tortured by the secret police in 1950. Released from prison in 1954, after Stalin’s death, Kádár emerged as the leader of the nation from 1956 and remained at the helm until 1988. He made Hungary the most Western-oriented and prosperous country in the Soviet sphere of influence.
KHARABAROV, Vanya, a young poet, friend of Yuri Pankratov. Both were expelled from the Gorky Institute and sent to Kazakhstan for their support of Pasternak; rehabilitated in 1960.
KUZNETSOV, Anatoly Vassilievich, Soviet writer, Kiev, 1929– London, 1979. Student at the Gorky Institute, 1958– 1960. His novella Continuation of a Legend was published in the review Yunost in 1957 in a heavily censored version incorporating additional episodes that he later said ‘were so outrageously cheerful that no reader would take them seriously’. He later published the momentous story of the wartime massacre of Jews at Babi Yar, and defected to Britain in 1968.
KYUZENGESH, Yu, student at the Gorky Institute, 1958– 1960.
LADONSHCHIKOV, G.A., student at the Gorky Institute, 1958–1960.
MASKIAVICIUS, B.M., student at the Gorky Institute, 1958–1960.
MAYAKOVSKY, Vladimir Vladimirovich, Russian poet, 1893–1930. The greatest of all modernist poets in Russia and a man of wild passions, Mayakovsky was put under great pressure to conform once Stalin had consolidated his grip on power in 1929. By many accounts Mayakovsky killed himself to escape from such an intolerable prospect.
PANKRATOV, Yuri, see under KHARABAROV.
PASTERNAK, Boris Leonidovich, Russian poet, translator and novelist, 1890–1960. See introduction.
PAUSTOVSKY, Konstantin Georgevich, Russian novelist and playwright, 1892–1968.
PETROS, Antaeus, student at the Gorky Institute, 1958– 1960.
POGOSIAN, A. A., student at the Gorky Institute, 1958– 1960.
REUTSKY, Piotr I., student at the Gorky Institute, 1958– 1960.
SERIOGIN, I. N., professor at the Gorky Institute.
SHAKENOV, Nutfulla, student at the Gorky Institute, 1958–1960.
SHOGENTSUKOV, A. O., student at the Gorky Institute, 1958–1960.
STULPANC, E. V., student at the Gorky Institute, 1958–1960.
TABUROKOV, P. I., student at the Gorky Institute, 1958– 1960.
TRIOLET, Elsa Yurevna, 1896–1970. Sister of Lilya Brik, Mayakovsky’s muse, and wife of Louis Aragon, Elsa Triolet was also a writer in her own name, in Russian and in French, and though naturalised French remained a stalwart supporter of the USSR.
TVARDOVSKY, Aleksandr Trifonovich, Soviet writer, 1910–1971. Author of Vassily Tyorkin, a part-humorous epic of an ordinary soldier’s life through the Second World War. Tvardovsky was the editor of Novy Mir, the most prestigious literary journal of the time, from, 1950–1954 and again from 1958–1970. However, in 1954 Tvardovsky began working on a parodic sequel to his original Tyorkin tale, in which the hero visits Hell and finds there a distorted view of Soviet life. Tyorkin Na Tom Svete (‘Tyorkin in the Other World’) was not completed until 1963. It was published, but not viewed favourably by government and Party officials.
VUKMANOVIĆ-TEMPO, Svetozar, 1912–2000. Yugoslav partisan and Communist Party leader.
YERMILOV, Vladimir, 1904–1965, biographer of Chekhov, author of Literature and The New Man (1963).
YEVTUSHENKO, Yevgenyi Aleksandrovich, 1933–. Russian poet. Already famous for his poetry collection, Zima Station (1956), Yevtushenko was expelled from the Gorky Institute in 1957 for ‘individualism’ but was able to become a popular ‘public poet’ during the relatively liberal years of the Khrushchev era. Later on, his political position was seen as ambiguous, if not duplicitous. Now divides his time between the USA and Russia.
ZETKIN, Klara, German militant, 1857–1933. Famous for her left-wing convictions but not for her good looks.
ZHUKOVSKY, Vassilyi Andreyevich, Russian poet and translator, 1783–1852. Translated Bürger’s ‘Lenore’ three times over, each time in a different way.
ZOG, Ahmet, Albanian politician, 1895–1961. Prime minister, then president (1925–1928), then self-proclaimed King of Albania (1928–1939). When Italy annexed Albania in 1939, Zog fled to Britain, and moved to Egypt after the Second World War. At the time this novel is set, Zog was living in France.
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