Ovid Gorchakov is one of the most famous Soviet scouts. Moreover, the country found out about him when, after the end of his career, he took up creativity. The hero of our article became famous as a writer and screenwriter, tens of thousands of readers carried his novels, millions of people watched films, scripts to which he wrote. This article will focus on the biography of the writer, as well as his most significant works.
Biography
Ovid Gorchakov was born in Odessa in 1924. His father was a Chuvash by nationality, a native of the village of Attikovo, which at that time was part of the Kazan province.
During the Great Patriotic War, Ovid Gorchakov was already in the reconnaissance group. He personally supervised several operations carried out in the rear of the Nazis. In particular, in Germany and Poland.
Officially, he served in the headquarters of the Western Front, and commanded separate special intelligence groups on the Belorussian and Far Eastern Front. In 1947 he was transferred to the reserve with the rank of lieutenant.
Peaceful life
Having appeared in the civil service, he decided to get a peaceful profession. By 1950, he graduated from translator courses organized at the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute of Foreign Languages.
Settled translators in the central apparatus of the Communist Party. In particular, he took part in plenary sessions and congresses of the CPSU when foreign guests attended them.
Ovid Gorchakov himself became a member of the Communist Party in 1952. By 1957, he graduated from the Gorky Literary Institute, beginning to try himself in the field of writing. He was admitted to the Writers' Union in 1965.
He came to popularity in 1960, when he co-authored with the Polish writer Janusz Psimanowski wrote the story âWe call the fire on ourselvesâ. Five years later, the television movie of the same name was released on Soviet screens, to which Ovid Gorchakov wrote the script with Sergey Kolosov.
He was fond of archery, for many years he was chairman of the All-Union Federation in this sport.
The writer Ovid Gorchakov died in April 2000 at the age of 75. He was buried at the Vagankovsky cemetery.
First success
The story âWe make fire for ourselvesâ brought Ovid Gorchakov the first real success, therefore it is worth telling about it in more detail.
This story and the four-part television movie based on it tells about real events that took place during the Great Patriotic War on the territory of the Bryansk region in the German rear.
At the center of the story is 21-year-old Bryanka, Anya Morozova, who first leaves her native village with a retreating Red Army, but then returns to refugees who never managed to get to their own. She gets to the Germans with a washerwoman, organizes an underground group that works together with the partisans.
In the film, the role of the real Soviet intelligence agent Anna Morozova was played by Lyudmila Kasatkina.
Spy romance
The books of Ovid Gorchakov were very popular. Especially the novel "John Green is untouchable," which the hero of our article wrote together with Grigory Pozhenyan and Vasily Aksenov under the common pseudonym Grivadiy Gorpozhaks.
In fact, this is a parody of a spy thriller, in which serious aspects of the military confrontation of the Western world and the socialist camp are touched upon, while the book has an anti-war focus. In the USSR, the novel was very popular, but due to emigration, Aksenov was not reprinted until 1990. As a result, for a decade, the book was considered the most expensive in the literary black market.
In the story, the protagonist of the novel is the son of the White Guard and the Russian emigrant Evgeny Grinev, who took the name Gene Green. He finds himself at the center of a spy plot by CIA workers, including former Nazis and SS members. Green is training American green berets, taking part in the Vietnam War, he is even sent with an espionage mission to the Soviet Union, where he finally finds out about the true intentions of his leadership in the CIA.
At home with Green, a real psychological change occurs. He decides to act against his associates. In addition, he learns that the American intelligence agencies were involved in the death of his father. Therefore, personal revenge is added to nostalgic and anti-war feelings.
His main goal after this is to kill his former friend and immediate superior Major Lot, who in reality turned out to be a Nazi who did not change his convictions. In addition, Lot used the CIA for his personal purposes.
Creation
The Soviet intelligence officer, writer and screenwriter Ovid Gorchakov was the author of a large number of essays and documentary books on military personnel. Among the most famous are the âPages of a Great Life,â âIn the Red Army's Head Watch,â âThe Commandant of the Invisible Front,â âHe and the Living in the ranks,â âThe Fate of the Commander of the Invisible Front,â âAttention: A Wonderful Mines!â
Gorchakov also wrote many essays and reports on international subjects, the activities of the Soviet special services on the eve of World War II are devoted to his documentary and historical novel "The Eve, or the Tragedy of Kassandra." He wrote several documentary stories about Soviet intelligence. The most widely read of them were Swan Song, Maxim Doesnât Communicate, He Corporal Woodstock, From Ardennes to Berlin, Keep Forever, Swans Don't Change, I live in the middle of Kletnyansky Forest "
Lermontov family
At the same time, Gorchakov was engaged in research activities. In particular, he was interested in the relatives and ancestors of Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov, who were originally from Scotland. As part of this work, the hero of our article worked on the Scottish archives, studied the documents of the Scottish Genealogical Society, the National Library in Edinburgh.
Based on the results of this research activity, he wrote The Saga of Lermontov and A Historical Novel about George Lermont, the ancestor of the Russian family of Lermontov, and his troubled times.
Major Whirlwind
An important role in the biography of Ovid Gorchakov was played by the writer Julian Semenov, who actually made him the prototype of Major Vikhr, the hero of his novel of the same name.
This work is part of a series of novels about the adventures of the Soviet scout Stirlitz. The novel was written in 1967, in fact becoming a continuation of the book "Third Map". This time the focus of the story is not Stirlitz himself, but a group of saboteurs, which includes his son Alexander Isaev.
According to the plot, the German leadership is preparing to undermine the Polish Krakow. To prevent this, a group of saboteurs is being thrown into the city, led by Major Vikhr, the prototype of which Gorchakov becomes. After a series of failures and not entirely unsuccessful operations, they decide to kill the Nazi executioner, who turns out to be Shtirlits, conspiratorial Soviet intelligence. He begins by all means to cover up their activities.
In the same year, the eponymous war drama of Yevgeny Tashkov appeared on Soviet screens. In the role of Major Whirlwind appeared Honored Artist of the RSFSR Vadim Beroev.
"Outlaw"
The military prose of the hero of our article was the basis of his work. Critics and readers noted that he was able to write especially naturally, since he was well versed in the topic, in fact, he knew the situation from the inside.
It is noteworthy that some of his works for a long time were actually banned, during the Soviet era they refused to print. For example, such a fate befell Ovid Gorchakovâs novel Outlaw. For the first time, readers could get to know him only during the years of perestroika.
The first reader of this book was the wife of the writer Alla Bobryshev, who admits that she was shocked to the core when she first read this work. It was completely unlike everything that was known at that time about the Great Patriotic War, radically at odds with the official line, which belonged to the Communist Party. Alla admits that only then she began to truly understand her husband why he is often so thoughtful and self-absorbed.
Reviews about the novel
Outlaw is a detailed chronicle of the entire three summer months of 1942. The novel is largely biographical, its main character becomes the author himself, who is recorded in saboteurs in order to go to smash the fascists.
Readers in reviews of this work note that it is not like most of what is known about the war from the pages of thick novels and dramatic films. This book is different, capable of even provoking indignation and rejection. Its author described what really happened to him. Therefore, everyone should read it.
Son
The son of the hero of our article, Vasily, who was born in 1951, is well known. Like his father, he became a translator. Also known as an actor and stuntman.
In total, with its help, about five thousand paintings were translated into Russian. In the 1980s and 90s, he became one of the first "pirate" translators in the country.
Vasily himself admits that before the age of six, he spoke English even better than Russian. This education was given to him by his parents. In 1963, he first appeared in the cinema, playing one of the main roles in the film story of Maria Fedorova "Big and Small" about difficult teenagers.
True, in his youth, his career was interrupted, his parents forbade him to withdraw due to poor performance. After school, he studied at the Military Institute of Foreign Languages, Shchepkinsky School, at the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University.
At Mosfilm, the son of a scout worked for about ten years as a stuntman. In recent years, known as the founder and head of the production center "Gorchakov", producer of the English director Peter Greenaway.
He played small roles in the movie in Renata Litvinovaâs drama âThe Goddess: How I Lovedâ, Victor Ginzubbergâs comedic phantasmagoria âGeneration Pâ, and Petersburgâs melodramatic comedy almanac âFor Love Onlyâ.
Now continues to be actively engaged in creativity.