In the history of Russian literature, there are enough military personnel. The officers were Tolstoy and Kuprin, and the author of “The Words about Igor's Regiment” probably knew firsthand about the battles. Another representative of this galaxy is the modern Petersburg author Andrei Zagortsev.
The beginning of the way
Andrei Vladimirovich Zagortsev was born on April 13, 1974 in the town of Belaya Kalitva, Rostov Region. This town has glorious military traditions - four Heroes of the Soviet Union come from here, in addition, there is the only monument to the Word of Igor’s Regiment in Russia. Such an environment could not but affect the impressionable young man - Andrei from a young age was passionately interested in everything related to the army and military affairs.
Andrei Zagortsev: biography of a warrior
When the time came, Andrei did not have much choice - only the army, only a military career. In this difficult field, Zagortsev achieved great success. The biography of Andrei Vladimirovich Zagortsev includes service in the GRU, navy and special forces, participation in real combat operations in Transnistria and Chechnya. Zagortsev rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel, he is a knight of the Order of Courage and the Order of Military Merit, awarded the medals For Courage, For Military Valor and For Merit to the Fatherland.
On the writing path
Andrei Zagortsev always liked to write. In an interview, the future writer recalled that as a child he loved to mess around with a pen and paper. At some point, this hobby again made itself felt. Lt. Col. Zagortsev realized that he was the bearer of innumerable fascinating and vivid stories that there was simply no one to tell more. So the idea arose to settle down in St. Petersburg and devote himself to literature.
Style Issues
The writer himself admits that there is nothing fundamentally innovative in his work. Andrei Vladimirovich Zagortsev is not a refined intellectual in the fifth generation, he does not claim to be the voice of the nation, he is not interested in verbose philosophical and political reasoning. The plots of his works are simple and understandable. They completely fit into one scheme: at first the heroes receive a difficult (otherwise it would be uninteresting!) Combat mission, then they carefully plan their actions, and in the final third they successfully solve the problem. It would seem simple, but in fact, it turns out that in every work of Zagortsev we can find elements of a wide variety of genres, from a detective story to an intellectual thriller, from an action movie to a tragedy.
Tragic optimism
Separately, it is worthwhile to dwell on the inherent manner of narration in Zagortsev. The language of the writer is emphasized simple, but it is clear that this stylistic work is not easy. Due to the ease of style and the author’s commitment to short, chopped phrases, the reader can follow the development of the plot without much effort. No need to go back and re-read strange places, events develop quickly and dynamically, as it should be in books of this kind.
Speaking of Zagortsev, one cannot but mention the humor peculiar to him. It is no coincidence that people say: "Whoever served in the army does not laugh in the circus." Andrei Zagortsev has an inexhaustible supply of army tales, which he generously inserts into his works. They only benefit from this - even the most tragic moments are perceived with some kind of irrational optimism and cheerfulness.
Andrei Zagortsev appears in every interview as a rare zealot and optimist. Which is traced in his works. It seems that this is not an accident - books always bear the imprint of the author.
Andrei Vladimirovich Zagortsev: biography of the writer
Zagortsev began publishing relatively recently. In 2009, his debut book “Do not give vodka to pilots” was released. She talks about the first Chechen war, and all the stylistic features that will be inherent in Zagortsev later on have already clearly manifested in her.
In the same year, the book "The Marine Company" saw the light of day. Perhaps the most successful and multilayered book by the author, “Special Forces of the Third World. Russian trump cards. ” Here, a deep knowledge of the subject is combined with purely literary merits - elaboration of characters and skillfully written plot. Even people who were initially skeptical of this book admitted that they swallowed it literally in one night.
Inspired by the success of "Special Forces ...", Andrei Zagortsev wrote "Battle Creed." This is the most non-standard work of the author. Firstly, in the center of the narrative there is not a real military operation, but exercises. Secondly, Zagortsev, extolling the power and ingenuity of the Russian soldier, quite unexpectedly decided to make the main characters of the staff officers. They are tasked with defeating trained groups of combat bayonets. It seems that they have no chance of success, however, due to proper planning and dashing Russian daring, they still cope with the task.
The deep thought is that it does not matter what position a person holds, it is important that at a critical moment he does not lose his head and can use all the hidden reserves.
Creative plans
Recently, Andrei Zagortsev turned 43. The age is very respectable for a military officer, but frankly “infantile” for a writer. Zagortsev has several decades of literary work ahead, which will be very interesting to follow.
The “combat credo” has already designated a certain evolution of the writer, his craving for more complex issues and deeper problems. Who knows, will the author of the militants “for one evening” turn into the new Tolstoy? After all, he also started as a career officer ...