Boris Vasiliev chronological table. Boris Vasiliev short biography

27.04.2019

Years of life: from 05/21/1924 to 04/11/2013

Soviet and Russian writer and a screenwriter, the main theme of whose works is war and pre-war times.

Father - Lev Aleksandrovich Vasilyev (born 1892), a career officer of the Tsarist, and later the Red and Soviet armies.

Mother - Alekseeva Elena Nikolaevna (born 1892), from a famous ancient noble family, associated with the names of Pushkin and Tolstoy, with social movement populists who participated in organizing the circle of “Chaikovites” and “Fourierist” communes in America.

Boris Vasiliev’s early passion for history and love for literature “were intertwined in his mind from childhood.” While studying at a Voronezh school, he played in amateur performances and published a handwritten magazine with his friend. When I graduated from 9th grade, the war began.

Boris Vasiliev went to the front as a volunteer as part of a Komsomol fighter battalion and on July 3, 1941 he was sent to Smolensk. He was surrounded and emerged from it in October 1941; then there was a camp for displaced persons, from where, at his personal request, he was sent first to a cavalry regimental school, and then to a machine gun regimental school, from which he graduated. He served in the 8th Guards Airborne Regiment of the 3rd Guards Airborne Division. During a combat drop on March 16, 1943, he fell into a mine tripwire and was taken to the hospital with a severe concussion.

In the fall of 1943, he entered the Military Academy of Armored and Mechanized Forces named after I.V. Stalin (later named after R.Ya. Malinovsky), where he met his future wife Zorya Albertovna Polyak, who studied at the same academy, who became his constant companion.

After graduating from the Faculty of Engineering in 1946, he worked as a tester of wheeled and tracked vehicles in the Urals. He retired from the army in 1954 with the rank of engineer-captain. In the report, he cited the desire to study literature as the reason for his decision.

Published since 1954 (the play about the post-war army "Tankmen"; a play based on it called "Officers" prepared in 1955 was filmed for censorship reasons). Vasiliev’s passion for the stage, characteristic of him since childhood, was also manifested in the creation of plays, scripts for a number of films and television programs. True success came to Vasiliev after the publication of the story “The Dawns Here Are Quiet...” (1969), dramatized (1971) and filmed (1972), which determined the main theme and tone of the writer’s work. Other works by Vasiliev, thematically addressed primarily to the war and pre-war years, also lie in the indicated direction.

But post-war reality also gave Boris Lvovich reasons for reflection. The famous story “Don't Shoot White Swans” raises quite complex moral issues.

Boris Vasiliev also paid tribute to historical issues. The problems of the “time of troubles” are central to Vasiliev’s historical novels." Prophetic Oleg" (1996) and "Prince Yaroslav and his sons" (1997).

The history of the Russian intelligentsia, intertwined with the history of Russia, has found its artistic embodiment in the novel “They Happened and Never Were”, which tells about the history of the Alekseev family (in the novel and in other books - the Oleksins), about the participation of the author’s two great-grandfathers in Russian-Turkish war. Choosing a genre family romance, which most fully meets his plans, Vasiliev traces the origins of the Russian intelligentsia using the example of the family and tries to determine its essence.

One of his last novels, “The Denial of Denial,” was among the ten best-selling books of 2005. It, starting from the 1917 revolution and up to the Great Patriotic War, shows the life of the Vereskovsky small landed nobles: tragic fate this family is the fate of Russia itself, a “strange country”, “the daughter of the Denial of Life”...

From the pen of the writer came many journalistic works, thematically covering the most diverse aspects of our life.

Boris Vasiliev is a laureate of the USSR State Prize in 1975. With the beginning of perestroika I took up social activities, was a deputy of the first Congress of People's Deputies. He is a member of the Human Rights Commission under the President of the Russian Federation. In 1997, he was awarded the Sakharov Prize “For Civil Courage”, awarded the Order of Friendship of Peoples, the Dovzhenko Gold Medal, laureate of the Konstantin Simonov Prize and the Nika Prize “For Honor and Dignity”. In 2004 he was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 2nd degree.

The film “The Dawns Here Are Quiet,” based on the book by Boris Vasiliev, was nominated for an Oscar in 1973, but lost to “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.”

Vasiliev's favorite writer is.

Writer's Awards

2009 - Literary award "" - special prize "For honor and dignity"

2004 - Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree - for outstanding services in development Russian literature and perennial creative activity

2003 - Nika Award - for Honor and Dignity

somewhere between 1998 and 2005 ( exact year could not be found) - Prize of the Moscow Writers' Union "Venets"

1999 - Order of Merit for the Fatherland, III degree - for outstanding contribution to the development of domestic literature; President's Award Russian Federation in literature and art

1998 - International Literary Prize "Moscow-Penne" - as the most popular and to a widely read writer for the novel "Quench My Sorrows..."

1997 - Prize named after. A. D. Sakharova "April" - "For civil courage"

1994 - Order of Friendship of Peoples - for great personal contribution to development modern literature and national culture

1987 - Gold medal named after A. Dovzhenko for the script for the film “Tomorrow There Was War”

1975 - - for the film "The Dawns Here Are Quiet"

1974 - Lenin Komsomol Prize

Bibliography

Tankers [Officers] (1954) Play
Knock and It Will Open (1955) Play
(1957) Tale
Another Flight (1958) Film script
The Long Day (1960) Film script
(1969) Tale
(1970)
It seems they will go with me on reconnaissance (1970)
(1970) Film script
(1973) Novel
(1974) Novel
Old Olympia (1975)
(1976) Film script
Veteran (1976) Story
Counter Fight (1979)
The Magnificent Six(1980) Story
Whose are you, old man? (1982) Story
(1982)
Short Castling (1983)
(1984) Tale
Roslik is missing (1984)
(1984)
Carnival (1985)
Once upon a time there was Klavochka (1986) Tale
(1986) Story
(1986)
Exhibit No.... (1987)
Exclamation Point World (1990)
(1991)
Live Line (1993) Story
(2001) Novel
(2002) Memoirs
(2004)
(2006) Journalism

episode: "Novels about Ancient Rus'"
(1996) East. novel
(1997) East. the novel - the novel "" (1997), republished under a different name, stands out from the general chronology of the series; perhaps the author plans to fill the time period between Vladimir and Alexander with the next new books.

Boris Lvovich Vasiliev(May 21, 1924, Smolensk - March 11, 2013, Moscow) - Russian writer and screenwriter. Laureate of the USSR State Prize (1975).

Memorial plaque in Smolensk. Sculptor P. A. Fishman

Father - Vasiliev Lev Alexandrovich (1892-1968) - a career officer in the Russian Imperial Army, later in the Red Army. Mother - Alekseeva Elena Nikolaevna (1892-1978), from the nobility.

He studied in Smolensk, in 1941 Boris Vasiliev graduated from the 9th grade of Voronezh Exemplary Secondary School No. 5 (now - high school No. 28, on the building from the street. Friedrich Engels posted memorial plaque in memory of B. L. Vasiliev).

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Boris Vasiliev went to the front as a volunteer as part of a Komsomol fighter battalion; on July 3, 1941, the battalion was sent to Smolensk, where it was surrounded and emerged from it in October 1941. He was sent to the regimental cavalry school, and then to the machine gun school, after which he served in the 8th Guards Airborne Regiment of the 3rd Guards Airborne Division. During the airborne landing near Vyazma on March 16, 1943, he fell into a mine trip and was taken to the hospital with a severe concussion. After this injury, Vasiliev was demobilized from the active army and in the fall of 1943 was sent to study at the Military Academy of Armored and Mechanized Forces named after I.V. Stalin.

In 1946 he graduated from the engineering faculty of the academy and worked as a tester of wheeled and tracked vehicles in the Urals. In 1952 he joined the CPSU. He retired from the army in 1954 with the rank of captain-engineer.

Vasiliev’s literary debut was the play “Tankmen” (1954), dedicated to the change of generations in the country’s post-war army. The play, called “Officer” after two test performances at the Theater Soviet Army, has not been staged since December 1955. Vasiliev continues to master drama and tries his hand as a screenwriter. After Vasiliev graduated from the studio at the USSR State Cinema Committee, feature films were produced based on his scripts: “The Next Flight” (1958), “Long Day” (1960). In 1971, the film “Officers” was released, which became widely known in the USSR. He wrote scripts for KVN and subtexts for film magazines.

First prose work Boris Vasiliev's story "Ivanov's boat" was accepted for publication in the magazine " New world"in 1967, but published only in 1970 (No. 8-9). The story was filmed by director Mark Osepyan in 1972, but the film was “shelved” and released only in 1987.

The writer gained the greatest fame in 1969 after the publication of the story “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet...” in the magazine “Youth” (No. 8). Vasiliev recalled that Boris Polevoy, having read the manuscript, made only two comments (replace “schmeisser” with “automatic” and “fir root” with “reverse”) and immediately signed it into the issue. From that moment on, the writer often published in the magazine “Youth”.

In 1970, the story “The Dawns Here Are Quiet...” was transferred to the stage of the Taganka Theater and became one of the most famous productions of the 1970s. In 1972, the work was filmed by Stanislav Rostotsky.

The writer constantly turns in his work to the theme of the Great Patriotic War and the military generation Soviet people: “Not on the lists” (“Youth”, 1974, No. 2-4); “Tomorrow there was a war” (“Yunost”, 1984, no. 6), in the stories “Veteran” (“Yunost”, 1976, no. 4), “The Magnificent Six” (“Yunost”, 1980, no. 6), “Whose are you?” , old man? (“New World”, 1982, No. 5), “The Burning Bush” (“3name”, 1986, No. 2). The writer paid attention in his work to modern acute social topics(“Don’t shoot (at) white swans”, “Youth”, 1973, No. 6-7) and Russian history. IN recent years life published a number of novels from the early history of Rus': “Prophetic Oleg” (1996), “Alexander Nevsky” (1997), “Olga, Queen of the Rus” (2001), “Prince Svyatoslav” (2006), “Vladimir the Red Sun” (2007 ), “Vladimir Monomakh” (2010).

Member of the Moscow Writers Union and the Russian Cinematographers Union, academician Russian Academy cinematic arts "Nika".

Family

Wife (since 1945) - Zorya Albertovna Polyak (1926-2013), designer and television editor; served as a prototype Sonya Gurvich(“And the dawns here are quiet…”) and Iskra Polyakova (“Tomorrow there was a war”).

Beliefs

Consistent anti-Stalinist. In one of the interviews with the publication The New Times stated:

Stalin was a dumbass. He had never served in the army in his life. He did not understand what an army was. He couldn't read the map. Shaposhnikov, the Chief of the General Staff, explained everything to him using a map. “The great Stalin” is covered in legends. And Comrade Stalin was a fool worse than Hitler...

In October 1993, he signed the “Letter of Forty-Two” in support of the forceful dispersal of the Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Soviet of Russia.

Awards and prizes

Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree (July 14, 2004) - for outstanding services in the development of Russian literature and many years of creative activity
Order of Merit for the Fatherland, III degree (May 21, 1999) - for outstanding contribution to the development of Russian literature
Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd degree (03/11/1985)
Order of the Red Banner of Labor (7 August 1981)
2 Orders of Friendship of Peoples (November 16, 1984, May 27, 1994)
Prize of the President of the Russian Federation in the field of literature and art 1999 (February 17, 2000)
USSR State Prize (1975) - for the film “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet...”
Lenin Komsomol Prize (1974) - for the film “The Dawns Here Are Quiet...”
Commemorative prize at the Venice Film Festival (1972) - for the film “The Dawns Here Are Quiet...”
The main prize of the All-Union Film Festival (1973) - for the film “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet...”
A.D. Sakharov Prize “For Civil Courage” (1997)
Nick Award (2002)
Special Prize “For Honor and Dignity” literary prize"Big Book" (2009).
Independent Movement Prize named after Academician A.D. Sakharov “April”,
international literary prize "Moscow-Penne",
Prize of the Moscow Writers Union “Venets”,
Award of the Russian Academy of Cinematographic Arts “Nika” - “For Honor and Dignity”.
Certificate of Honor from the President of the Russian Federation (March 23, 2009) - for his great contribution to the development of Russian literature and culture, many years of creative activity

Essays

Collected works

Collected works in three volumes. M.: Favorite Russia, 2004
Collected works in eight volumes. - M.: “Rusich”, 1994. - T. 1-5
Collected works in five volumes. - M.: Vagrius, 1999. - 5,000 copies.
Selections in two volumes. - M., 1988

Individual works and collections

And the dawns here are quiet // Youth, 1969, No. 8. Story
Not included in the lists // Yunost, 1974, No. 2, 3, 4. Story
Greetings from Baba Lera. Novel // Neva, 1988, No. 12, p. 6-91
The Magnificent Six // Youth, 1980, No. 6. Story
Veteran // Youth, 1976, No. 4. Story
Counter battle // Youth, 1979, No. 5. Story
Whose are you, old man? // New World, 1982, No. 5. Story
The Death of the Goddesses // Neva, 1986, No. 7. Story
Outback. (2001) Novel
Long day. (1960) Film script
Once upon a time there was Klavochka // Yunost, 1987, No. 1. Tale
Tomorrow there was a war // Youth, 1984, No. 6. Story
Ivanov's boat // New World, 1970, No. 8, 9. Story
It seems they will go with me on reconnaissance // Yunost, 1980, No. 2. Story
Carnival // Consent, 1991, No. 1, 2. Story
Drop by drop. Tale. 1991.
Red pearls. Tale
Short castling. Tale
My horses are flying... A story about my time // Youth, 1982, No. 6. Story
“The world is an exclamation mark” // Youth, 1985, No. 6. Story
Don’t shoot white swans // Yunost, 1973, No. 6, 7. Roman
The Burning Bush // Znamya, 1986, No. 2. Story
Denial of denial. - AST, Astrel, 2013. - 426 p.
Another flight (1958). Film script
Queue. Story // Ogonyok, 1988, No. 16, p. 20-24
Winners. Tale
Friday // Youth, 1970, No. 6. Story
Continue the search // Smena, 1986, No. 16, 17, 18. Story
Roslik has disappeared. Tale
The very last day... // Youth, 1970, No. 11. Story
Skobelev, or There is only a moment... (is a branch of the novel “Were and Were Not”)
Old “Olympia” // Youth, 1975, No. 6. Story
Knock and it will open. (1955) Play
Court and case... // Man and Law, 1983, No. 11-12. Tale
Tankers. [Officers] (1954) Play
“Cold, cold...” Story
Exhibit No.... // Youth, 1986, No. 3.

A series of historical novels “Novels about Ancient Rus'”

Prophetic Oleg (1996)
Olga, Queen of the Rus (2001)
Prince Svyatoslav (2006)
Vladimir Red Sun (2007)
Alexander Nevsky (1997; novel “Prince Yaroslav and His Sons” republished under a different title)
The Sovereign's Secret (2009)
Vladimir Monomakh (2010)

A series of historical novels “The History of the Oleksin Family”

Gambler and buster, gambler and duelist: Notes of a great-great-grandfather (1998)
They were and were not (1977-1980)

Book 1. Gentlemen volunteers
Book 2. Gentlemen officers

Quench my sorrows (1997)
And there was evening and there was morning (1987)
The House That Grandfather Built (1991, 1993)
The same age as the century (1988; the novel “Greetings to You from Baba Lera” republished under a different title)

Theater productions

1970 - “And the dawns here are quiet” - Leningrad Theater for Young Spectators (the first production in the USSR - the premiere took place on May 9, 1970. Director - Semyon Dimant).
1970 - “And the dawns here are quiet” - Omsk Theater for Children and Youth
1971 - “And the dawns here are quiet” - Taganka Drama and Comedy Theater, Moscow; production by Yuri Lyubimov
1971 - “And the dawns here are quiet” - Central Theater of the Soviet Army, Moscow
1971 - “Not on the lists” Omsk Theater for Children and Youth
1975 - “Not on the lists” - “Lenkom”; staged by Yuri Vizbor, staged by Mark Zakharov
1985 - “Tomorrow there was war” - Theater named after. V. Mayakovsky
2005 - “Tomorrow there was war” - Theater of Youth Creativity, St. Petersburg
2010 - “And the dawns here are quiet” - Theater of Youth Creativity, St. Petersburg
2010 - “And the dawns here are quiet”, musical drama by A. Krotov based on the story - Novosibirsk Musical Comedy Theater
2011 - “And the dawns here are quiet” - St. Petersburg Theater “Workshop”
2012 - “Tomorrow there was war” - Theater studio social performance "KEVS", St. Petersburg
2013 - “And the dawns here are quiet” - Theater studio of social performance “KEVS”, St. Petersburg
2012 - “And the dawns here are quiet” - Borisoglebsky drama theater them. N. G. Chernyshevsky
2011-2013 - “And the dawns here are quiet” - Theater studio “Mystery” at the Palace of Children and Youth, Tver
2015 - “Tomorrow There Was War” - Educational Theater of the Perm State Academy of Art and Culture, Perm
2015 - “Tomorrow there was war” - Samarsky academic theater dramas
2015 - “You are my resurrection” based on the story “Friday” - Kovcheg Theater Company, non-state theater studio Leningrad region, play Winner of the Delphic Games of Russia 2015 in the “THEATRE” category
2015 - “There is no tomorrow in war” based on the story “And the dawns here are quiet” - Puppet and Drama Studio Galaxy, Minsk, Belarus.

Film adaptations

"Next Flight" (1958)
"Sergeants" (1958)
"Long Day" (1961)
"Trace in the Ocean" (1964)
"Royal Regatta" (1966)
"On the Way to Berlin" (1969)
“And the dawns here are quiet” (TV) (1970)
"Officers" (1971)
“And the dawns here are quiet” (1972)
"The Very Last Day" (1972)
"Ivanov's boat" (1972)
The Very Last Day (teleplay) (1973)
"Loneliness" (TV) (1974)
“Aty-baty, the soldiers were coming...” (1976)
"Don't Shoot White Swans" (1980)
“Whose are you, old man?” (1982)
"Defendant" (1985)
"At the Call of the Heart" (1986)
"Riders" (1987)
"Tomorrow there was a war" (1987)
“Whose are you, old man?” (1988)
“Tomorrow there was a war” (television play) (1990)
"In that region of heaven..." (1992)
"I am a Russian soldier" (1995)
“The Dawns Here Are Quiet” (TV series) (PRC, 2005)
"Peranmai" (Tam. "Valor") (India, 2009)
“And the dawns here are quiet” (2015)

Criticism

Baranov V. Development or walking in circles? (1973)
Blazhnova T. The grandchildren will figure it out: [On the release of Boris Vasiliev’s book “Prophetic Oleg”]. (1997)
Borisova I. Reminder. (1969)
Voronov V. Serious debut. (1970)
Dedkov I. The Legend of Yegor the Poor-Bearer. (1973)
Dementyev A. Military prose by Boris Vasiliev. (1983)
Kovsky V. Living life novel. (1977)
Latynina A. A private person in history. (1978)
Levin F. A quarter of a century ago. (1970)
Polotovskaya I. L. The lists include: Vasiliev B. L. (Biography. Bibliography. Scenography) // Bibliography. - 2005. - No. 2. - P. 75-88
Uvarova L. The power of kindness. (1973)
Yudin V. If you're on a reconnaissance mission, go with him!: Oh creative path writer Boris Vasiliev. (1985)

The article talks about a brief biography of Boris Vasiliev, a famous prose writer and playwright who devoted most of his works to the theme of war.

Biography of Vasiliev: early years

Boris Lvovich Vasiliev was born in 1924. His father was a professional military man, and his mother came from an ancient noble family. Boris has been interested in history since childhood and read a lot. Already at school, he published his own homemade magazine and took part in amateur performances. Boris liked the rich history hometown Smolensk, which played an important role in significant events in Russian history. Vasiliev later recalled that as a child he dreamed of becoming a historian.

Vasiliev met the war while studying in the ninth grade. There was no need to think about continuing his studies; the future writer volunteered to go to the front. Near Smolensk, the units in which Vasiliev was located were surrounded. Some, including Boris, managed to escape from it. He graduated from cavalry and machine gun schools, after which he was again at the front. In 1943, Vasiliev received a severe concussion. After treatment in the hospital, he studied at the Military Academy, where he met his future wife. Vasiliev graduated from the Academy after the end of the war, in 1948. He worked as a military tester for several years. vehicles in the Urals.

In 1954 at will resigned and decided to devote later life literature. The writer's career developed gradually and at first was full of failures. The author's first work was the play "Tank Men", which was accepted for production, but just before the premiere an order was received to ban the play for censorship reasons. Vasiliev tries not to pay attention to this incident.

In 1955 he published new play“Knock and it will open”, which is successfully performed on the stages of several Soviet theaters.
In the second half of the 50s. Several films are being released based on Vasiliev’s scripts. However, literary activity does not bring much income to the writer. He has to do the "black" literary work: Work on scripts for minor film magazines and television shows. She was the first to see the light in this field creative work writer - a collection of scripts for KVN.

Biography of Vasiliev: recognition of success

The writer’s first serious story, “Ivanov’s Boat,” lay on the editor’s desk for several years and was published in 1970. Real success Vasilyev received the story “The Dawns Here Are Quiet...”, published in 1969. The story immediately gained wide popularity. Until our time, performances based on it are constantly staged in different Russian theaters. The work was filmed abroad and twice in Russia. The story became classic work Soviet literature.

The main theme of Vasiliev’s works is the Great Patriotic War. He is primarily interested in the fate of people, their lives during and after the war. Over the following years, the writer published many novels and stories devoted to this topic.

During Perestroika, Vasiliev was actively involved in social activities and was a member of the Human Rights Commission during the presidency of Boris Yeltsin.

In the 90s Vasiliev addresses historical theme and publishes novels from Russian history. A special place is occupied by the novel “They Were and They Were Not,” dedicated to the history of the origin of the writer’s noble family.
In 2005, the novel “Denial of Denial” was published, which became one of the most readable works in modern Russian literature.

Vasiliev was awarded many state prizes of the USSR and Russia in the field of literature and cinema.
Boris Vasiliev died in 2013, remaining one of the most popular modern writers. Despite some public cooling towards the official military literature of the Soviet era, Vasiliev’s work, especially the story “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet...”, still enjoys enormous reader interest. About twenty feature films, which are classics of Soviet cinema, were shot based on the writer’s scripts.

Vasiliev Boris Lvovich short biography will tell about the life and work of the Russian writer, author of the story “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet...”.

Boris Lvovich Vasiliev biography

Born on May 21, 1924 in Smolensk in the family of an officer. Mother came from an old noble family.

In 1943, after finishing ninth grade, he volunteered for the front. He took part in the battles near Smolensk and was shell-shocked.

In 1948 he graduated from the Military Academy of Armored and Mechanized Forces. Worked as a combat vehicle tester.

Soon he began writing scripts for films. The films “The Next Flight” (1958) and “Officers” (1971) appeared. Vasiliev also composed many scripts for KVN and some film magazines.

In 1967, the story “Ivanov’s Boat” appeared in Tvardovsky’s magazine, based on which a film was made a few years later. The writer’s fame and popularity came from the story “The Dawns Here Are Quiet...”, published in 1969. The manuscript was immediately accepted for publication by the magazine Yunost. From now on everything best works writers were published there. In 1970, the story appeared on the stage of the Taganka Theater, and in 1972 S. Rostotsky made a film based on it.

Most of Vasiliev’s books are addressed to the theme of war and acute social problems. B. L. Vasiliev is a laureate of many literary and state awards, as well as a member of the Moscow Writers' Union.

Boris Vasiliev – author numerous books, based on which 15 were filmed feature films, a representative of the generation that was born after the death of the Leader of the Revolution and fought bravely on the fields of the Great Patriotic War.

We know Boris Lvovich Vasiliev as a writer and screenwriter, Laureate of the USSR State Prize, which he was awarded in 1975. He is also the embodiment of an entire era, a representative of the “guard” of writers and poets who, unfortunately, are leaving us, dissolving into eternity.

Fortunately, not without a trace, leaving behind a rich legacy of written novels, stories, and plays.

Childhood

Boris Vasiliev's hometown is Smolensk. It was here that the future famous prose writer was born into a family of Russian intellectuals on May 21, 1924. The boy's father, L.A. Vasiliev (1892-1968), was a career officer in the Tsarist, then in the Red and Soviet Army. Mother - E.N. Alekseeva (1982-1978) of noble origin, whose family was very old and associated with Pushkin and Tolstoy, the populist movement of the 19th century. Elena Alekseeva’s uncle and father are the organizers of the populist circle “Tchaikovsky”; in America they took part in organizing communes.

Photo: Boris Vasiliev in childhood

Since childhood, the boy liked history and literature; he said that these two loves were closely intertwined in his mind. His father is transferred to service in Voronezh and the family moves with him. Boris enters a local school, studies well, takes part in amateur performances, and participates in the publication of a handwritten magazine.

A happy childhood was ruined by the war - and he was only a ninth-grader. Boris volunteers to go to the front with the Komsomol extermination battalion. His battalion received an order to head to Smolensk, where it found itself surrounded, from which it was possible to escape only in October 1941.

War

After leaving the encirclement, Boris finds himself in a camp for displaced people. He himself wished to become a cadet in the cavalry and then in the machine gun regimental school. Further place of service is the 8th Guards Airborne Regiment. On March 16, 1943, an airborne landing took place near Vyazma, where Vasiliev received a severe concussion from a mine tripwire and was hospitalized. Boris himself considered himself lucky, because he survived the typhus epidemic in 1934, emerged unharmed from encirclement in 1941, all seven of his parachute jumps were successful, and even the last one, in combat in 1943 near Vyazma, where he escaped with shell shock, and there was not a single scratch on the body.

In the same 1943, 19-year-old Boris enrolled as a cadet at the Stalin Military Academy, which he successfully graduated in 1948 with a degree in testing engineer.

Vasiliev could no longer imagine his life without literature and writing. Having gone through the heat of war, he saw so much heroism and patriotism of people that he could not help but embody this experience in his works. Everything seen and experienced should become the property of the people, and heroic characters should be the main characters of their works. It was for this reason that in 1954 Vasiliev submitted a report on his dismissal from the army, in which he indicated the reason for his dismissal - the desire to devote himself to literature. His military rank upon dismissal - engineer-captain.

Literary life

Debut in literary and creative biography Boris Vasilyev is associated with the play “Tankmen,” which was published in 1954. In it, the author touched upon the topic of changing army generations in a country that went through a war. A performance was staged based on this play, which was called “Officer,” but the audience did not see it. The Soviet Army Theater managed to conduct only two test productions - in December 1955, a ban came from the Main Political Directorate of the Army, which did not even indicate the reason for such a decision.

But failure did not break Boris Lvovich; he took up dramaturgy and tried to write scripts. It was as a screenwriter that his first success came – directing the films “The Next Flight” (1958) and “A Long Day” (1960). And another film that brought Boris Vasiliev fame and people’s love - “Officers”, which was released in 1971.

After this, the streak of failures began again. B. Vasiliev’s story “Ivanov’s boat” repeated the sad fate of “Tankmen”. It was accepted for publication in Novy Mir in 1967, but the reader was able to get acquainted with it only three years later - in 1970.
The author experienced real fame after the publication of his story “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet...”, which was published in 1968 by the magazine “Yunost”. After this publication, the writer throughout many years collaborated with the magazine, it was here that all the works that came from the pen of the great prose writer were published.

In 1970, the play “The Dawns Here Are Quiet...” was staged by the Taganka Theater and it became the most significant production of the year. In 1972, S. Rostotsky filmed his favorite play - the film received popular love. After this, the play was filmed two more times.

Military themes are present in almost all the works of Boris Vasiliev, because he himself went through its hell. In the stories “Tomorrow there was a war”, “Not on the lists”, in the stories “The Magnificent Six”, “Veteran”, “The Burning Bush” and “Whose are you, old man?” - authentic episodes of the Great Patriotic War. Films have been made based on these works, some of which have been remade several times.
A special place in Vasiliev’s work is given to historical novels. In his works he reveals early history Rus'.

Personal life

In life famous prose writer there was only one woman - his beloved wife Zorya Albertovna Polyak. Their acquaintance took place in 1943, when Boris was discharged from the hospital and he went to enter the Military Academy. The young people got married in 1945. Zorya worked in a design bureau and as a television editor. The wife supported her husband in everything, was a true friend, comrade and muse. It was from Zorya Albertovna that the image of Sonya was written for the story “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet...”. The prototype of Iskra Polyakova in the novel Tomorrow There Was War was also the writer’s wife, his beloved Zorya. They lived together for a long and happy 70 years.

Death

Boris Vasiliev died in Moscow on March 11, 2013. The writer did not live only a year before his 90th birthday. The funeral took place at Vagankovskoe cemetery March 14, with full military honors. He lies next to his beloved Zorya, who died that same year, but two months earlier.

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