The writer Fedin Konstantin Alexandrovich was born in the city of Saratov in 1892. He was also a journalist, special correspondent. He worked in the Writers' Union as first secretary, and later as chairman of the board. He was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and received the title Hero of Social Labor. More information about the biography of Konstantin Fedin is available below.
Young years
Konstantin Fedin, whose photo is presented in the article, grew up in the family of the owner of a store selling stationery. The path of writing has attracted him since childhood. Not wanting to become a merchant (as his father insisted), he ran away from home twice. But in 1911 he became a student at a commercial institute in Moscow.
In 1913, the satirical stories of Fedin were first published. At the end of the third year, he leaves for Germany, where he studies German. To make money, plays the violin. There he finds war. Until 1918, Konstantin lives in Germany, being a civilian captive, performs on the stage.
Return
In the fall of 1918, he returned to Moscow, where he served in the People's Commissariat of Education. In 1919, he was the secretary of the city executive committee in the city of Syzran, editor of the journal "Responses" and the newspaper "Syzransky Communard". In the autumn of the same year, Konstantin Fedin was sent to Petrograd, to the political department of the cavalry division. He joined the RCP (b) and was published in Petrograd Pravda. In 1921, in the spring, he became a member of the Serapion Brothers community, and then became a member of the editorial board in the journal Book of the Revolution.
This year Fedin left the party, motivating this step by the need to completely surrender to writing. From 1921 to 1929, he worked in various editorial offices and publishing houses as secretary, executive secretary, member and chairman of the board. He also wrote short stories and novels. For the story “Garden” in Petrograd, he was awarded the first prize as part of the contest “House of Writers”.
The best novels
During this period, he wrote two of his most highly regarded novels. These include Cities and Years, as well as Brothers. The first of them reflects the writer's impressions of life in Germany during the First World War and the experience that he gained in civilian life. The second novel tells the story of Russia during the years of the revolution.
Both works tell about the fate of the intelligentsia in the revolution. They were perceived by readers with enthusiasm both in Russia and abroad. They have been translated into Polish, German, French, Czech, Spanish.
Illness and recovery
In 1931, Konstantin Fedin fell ill with severe tuberculosis and was treated in Switzerland and Germany until the winter of 1932. Until 1937 he lived in Leningrad, after which he moved to Moscow. In 1935, his novel "The Abduction of Europe" was released. It was the first political novel in Soviet literature.
It was followed in 1940 by the Arktur Sanatorium, based on the impressions of being in the tuberculosis sanatorium in Davos. This novel shows the recovery of a hero who is a Soviet citizen. It takes place against the backdrop of the Western economic crisis and the Nazis' rise to power, which, according to the author’s plan, should symbolize the advantage of the Soviet system.
Subsequent works
From autumn 1941 to early 1943, Konstantin Fedin lived with his family in the city of Chistopol in evacuation. In 1945-46 he was a special correspondent for Izvestia at the Nuremberg trials.
During the war years, he wrote essays containing the impressions received on trips to the frontline areas, freed from German occupation. Then he wrote a book of memoirs called "Bitter among us." It is dedicated to the literary life in Petrograd in the 20s of the last century, to the literary association “The Serapion Brothers”. As well as the role that Maxim Gorky had a chance to play in the fate of some young writers.
This work has been subjected to harsh official criticism more than once. The writer was charged with a distorted image of the image of A. M. Gorky. Without abbreviations, the book was printed only in 1967.
Last years
In the years 1947-1955. Konstantin Fedin led the prose section at the Moscow branch of the Writers' Union. And from 1955 to 1959 he was chairman of the board. In 1959-71 he is already the first secretary, and in 1971-77. - Chairman of the Board of the Union of Writers of the USSR. In 1958, he was elected an academician at the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Department of Language and Literature.
The first wife of Konstantin Alexandrovich was Fedina Dora Sergeevna, whose years of life 1895-1953. She worked in the private publishing house Grzhebin as a typist. In this marriage, the daughter of Nina was born, who became an actress.
Mikhailova Olga Viktorovna (1905-1992) - that was the name of the second, civil wife of the writer.
Konstantin Alexandrovich Fedin died in 1977. He was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.
Post-Soviet criticism
In the years preceding the Great Patriotic War, Fedin showed an active public position. Many times he acted as a defender of the writer's right to enjoy freedom in his work. And also defended the traditions inherent in the great Russian literature.
But in the post-war period, in accordance with his high posts, he occupies an increasingly moderate position with respect to the most acute moments arising in the literary life of the USSR. He began to fully approve of the line of the party and government.
Fedin did not defend Pasternak, with whom he had been friends for twenty years until the time of persecution of the latter. He was absent at the funeral of Boris Leonidovich, which was explained by the serious illness of the “leader of Soviet literature”.
And also Konstantin Aleksandrovich was an opponent of the publication of Solzhenitsyn’s novel The Cancer Corps. Moreover, he previously approved the publication of “One Day by Ivan Denisovich” in the magazine “New World”. He also signed a letter about Sakharov and Solzhenitsyn, compiled in 1973 and sent to the newspaper Pravda.