Vsevolod
Ivanov was born in Lebyazhye on 12th February, 1895. He ran away as
a child to become a clown in a travelling circus. His first story,
published in 1915, caught the attention of Maxim
Gorky, and he helped and advised him throughout his career.
Ivanov
joined the Red Army and fought in Siberia
during the Civil War. This served to
inspire his short stories, Partisans
(1921) and Armoured Train (1922).
In 1922
Ivanov helped form the literary group, the Serapion
Brothers. Inspired by the work of Yevgeni
Zamyatin, the group took their name from the story by E. T. Hoffmann,
the Serapion Brothers, about an
individualist who vows to devote himself to a free, imaginative and
non-conformist art. Other members included Nickolai
Tikhonov, Mikhail Zoshchenko,
Victor Shklovsky, Mikhail
Slonimski, and Konstantin Fedin.
Ivanov's
first two novels, Colored Winds
(1922) and Azure Sands (1923),
were also based on his experiences in the Civil
War.
Ivanov
was criticized by pro-Bolshevik critics who claimed his work was too
pessimistic. They also pointed out that his stories about the Civil
War, it was not clear if the Reds or
Whites were the heroes.
In 1927
Ivanov rewrote his short story, the Armoured
Train 14-69 and turned it into a play. This time, the play
emphasized the role played by the Bolsheviks
in the Civil War.
His later
work conformed to the requirements of Socialist
Realism. This included the Adventures
of a Fakir (1935) and The Taking
of Berlin (1945). During the Second World
War, Ivanov, worked as war correspondent for Izvestia.
Vsevolod Ivanov died on 15th August, 1963.
Available
from Amazon Books (order below)
