Boris Vasilyev (writer)


Boris Lvovich Vasilyev was a Russian writer and screenwriter. He is considered the last representative of the so-called lieutenant prose, a group of former low-ranking Soviet officers who dramatised their traumatic World War II experience.

Biography

Born into a family of Russian nobility. His father Lev Alexandrovich Vasilyev came from a dynasty of military officers; he served in the Imperial Russian Army and took part in the First World War in the rank of Poruchik before joining the Red Army. Vasilyev's mother Elena Nikolaevna Alexeeva belonged to a noble Alexeev family tree that traces its history back to the 15th century; her father was among the founders of the Circle of Tchaikovsky.
In 1941 Boris Vasilyev volunteered for the front line and joined a destruction battalion. He fought as part of the 3rd Guards Airborne Division up until 1943 when he was wounded in action and demobilized. After his World War II service, Vasiliev enrolled at the Malinovsky Tank Academy.
His short novel The Dawns Here Are Quiet was a Soviet bestseller, selling 1.8 million copies within a year after its publication in 1969. It was adapted for the stage and the screen; there is also an opera by Kirill Molchanov, and a Chinese TV series based on the story.
The Dawns Here Are Quiet was the first of Vasiliev's sentimental patriotic tales of female heroism in the Second World War which brought him renown in the Soviet Union, China, and other communist countries. Some of his books give a harsh picture of life in Stalin's Russia.
Vasiliev's short novel Don't Shoot the White Swans, a milestone of Russian-language environmental fiction, is sharply critical of "the senseless destruction of beautiful creatures and the exploitation of nature for personal gain". It was made into a 1980 Soviet film.
Vasiliev was awarded the USSR State Prize for 1975 and was a member of the jury at the 39th Berlin International Film Festival. In 1989, he quit the USSR Communist Party but grew disillusioned with the Perestroika rather quickly. In October 1993, he signed the Letter of Forty-Two. Late in life, Vasiliev turned to historical fiction based on incidents from medieval Russian chronicles.
Vasilyev died on 11 March 2013 following the deaths of his wife and his adopted son earlier the same year. He was buried at the Vagankovo Cemetery near his wife.

Selected filmography

YearTitleOriginal title-
YearTitleOriginal titleNotes
1958A Routine TripОчередной рейс
1966Royal RegattaКоролевская регатаwith Kirill Rapoport and Semyon Listov
1969On the Way to BerlinНа пути в Берлинwith Kirill Rapoport and Yuri Chulyukin
1971OfficersОфицерыwith Kirill Rapoport
1972The Dawns Here Are QuietА зори здесь тихиеwith Stanislav Rostotsky
1972The Very Last DayСамый последний деньwith Mikhail Ulyanov
1977One-Two, Soldiers Were Going...Аты-баты, шли солдаты...with Kirill Rapoport
1980Do Not Shoot at White SwansНе стреляйте в белых лебедейwith Kirill Rapoport
1987Tomorrow Was the WarЗавтра была война
1995I Am a Russian SoldierЯ — русский солдатbased on the novel
2005The Dawns Here Are Quiet这里的黎明静悄悄with Yun Lan, Chinese-Russian TV series
2009Peranmaiபேராண்மைbased on the novel, Indian movie
2015The Dawns Here Are QuietА зори здесь тихие...based on the novel