Anatoly Rybakov

Anatoly Rybakov (born Jan. 1 [Jan. 14, New Style], 1911, Chernigov, Ukraine, Russian Empire [now Chernihiv, Ukraine]—died Dec. 23, 1998, New York, N.Y., U.S.) was a Russian author whose novels of life in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin’s dictatorship were published—and became popular—after the institution of glasnost in the late 1980s.

In 1933 Rybakov completed his studies in transport engineering and soon after was arrested for making “subversive” statements. Exiled to Siberia for three years, he cleared his record by serving in the Soviet army during World War II. After the war he turned to writing, producing first a popular children’s novel, Kortik (1948; The Dirk), then an adult novel, Voditeli (1950; “The Drivers”), which won the Stalin Prize; these and several of Rybakov’s subsequent novels were made into films or television series in the Soviet Union. The individual’s responsibility to himself and to society as a whole was the ongoing theme of his fiction.

Jewish himself, Rybakov wrote of the plight of Russian Jews confronting Nazi invaders during World War II in Tyazhyoly pesok (1979; Heavy Sand), an epic novel that brought him an international audience. With the arrival of Premier Mikhail Gorbachev’s policy of glasnost, Rybakov was allowed to publish Deti Arbata (1987; Children of the Arbat), much of which had been suppressed for more than two decades. The work presents a horrifying view of Stalin’s brutal rule in the early 1930s; Sasha, the hero, is a thinly disguised version of the author. Strakh (1990; Fear), which presents the techniques of interrogation and torture used by the NKVD, the Soviet secret police, and Prakh i pepel (1996; Dust and Ashes) complete the Arbat trilogy.

Rybakov’s novels were extremely popular, but critics of all factions declared them artistically flawed and lacking in historical accuracy. Shortly before his death he wrote his autobiography, Roman-vospominaniye (1997; “A Novel-Memoir”).