Vladimir Semenovich Makanin
Vladimir Semenovich Makanin was a notable Russian author born on March 13, 1937, in Orsk, Russia. His early life was marked by hardship, including the imprisonment of his father during the Great Terror, which deeply affected his family. Makanin excelled academically, earning a degree in mathematics from Moscow University, and initially worked as an instructor before turning to writing. He gained recognition during the post-Stalin thaw, publishing numerous works that showcased his talent for characterization, especially of men, while his female characters were often more intricately portrayed. Makanin’s writing commonly reflected a subdued critique of Soviet society, utilizing fantastical elements to address complex themes, such as the ideologies of Communism. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, his literary style evolved to become more direct, securing him accolades like the Russian Booker Prize and the State Prize in Literature. Despite his significant contributions to Russian literature, he remained relatively obscure to English-speaking audiences. Makanin passed away on November 1, 2017, at the age of eighty-one, leaving behind a legacy of impactful literature that resonates with themes of identity and societal critique.
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Vladimir Semenovich Makanin
- Born: March 13, 1937
- Birthplace: Orsk, Russia
- Died: November 1, 2017
- Place of death: Rostov Oblast, Russia
Biography
Vladimir Semenovich Makanin was born in Orsk, Russia, a town in the foothills of the southern Ural Mountains not far from Kazakhstan, on March 13, 1937. His father, Semen Stepanovich Makanin, came from a family of gentry and had fought among the White Russians during the Russian Civil War. Makanin’s mother, Anna Ivanovna Glushkova, was of Cossack ancestry and was a schoolteacher. Makanin’s father was falsely accused of sabotage during the Great Terror, the period in the 1930s when Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ruthlessly killed or imprisoned thousands of people whom he perceived as his enemies. With his father imprisoned, the family was left destitute during a famine in which the youngest of the family’s four children died. Makanin’s father was released only on the intervention of an uncle.
The young Makanin excelled at chess and was able to gain a place in the mathematics department of Moscow University, where he graduated in 1960, becoming an instructor at the Military- Artillery Academy. Bored with his teaching work, he began to dabble in writing. With the post-Stalin thaw well underway, Soviet publishers were looking for a new voice among young writers, and Makanin was able to get a number of his works published. He then left his teaching work to study screenwriting. Although one of his screenplays was filmed, he decided that he would prefer to concentrate on writing novels and short stories. He was noted for his skill at characterization, particularly of men, although his women characters often were more skillfully drawn.
Unlike many Soviet writers, Makanin never was the victim of major repression, although he was continually treated as an outsider and kept on the edge of Soviet literary society. Keenly aware of his marginal status, he frequently wrote in a subdued style that masked criticism under a fantastical element. For example, he retold an old myth about a group of miners in the Urals who murder a miner in pursuit of what they believed were unending riches, a story that could be seen as a criticism of the Soviet Union’s pursuit of the ideals of Communism over the bodies of untold millions of its citizens.
After the August, 1991, coup brought an end to the Soviet Union and Soviet censorship, Makanin became more straightforward in his writing, although he never allowed it to become coarse or undisciplined. From the early 1990s, he was increasingly recognized as one of the most important figures in modern Russian literature, and he won numerous national and international awards including the Russian Booker Prize and the Pushkin Prize. On June 12, 2000, Makanin received the State Prize in Literature from Vladimir Putin, president of the Russian Federation. Other later awards included the Big Book Prize and the European Prize for Literature.
Despite his status as a major Russian writer, Makanin was relatively little-known to English language audiences during his lifetime. Several of his works did receive English translations, but he remained mostly read by scholars of Russian literature. After several years of declining health, Makanin died on November 1, 2017, in his home village of Red, in Rostov Oblast. He was eighty-one years old.
Bibliography
Brintlinger, Angela. "The Hero in the Madhouse: The Post-Soviet Novel Confronts the Soviet past." Slavic Review: American Quarterly of Russian, Eurasian and East European Studies, vol. 63, no. 1, 2004, pp. 43–65.
Cornwell, Neil, and Nicole Christian, editors. Reference Guide to Russian Literature. Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 1998.
Dalton-Brown, Sally. "Ineffectual Ideas, Violent Consequences: Vladimir Makanin's Portrait of the Intelligentsia." Slavonic and East European Review, vol. 72, no. 2, Apr. 1994, pp. 218–232.
Dalton-Brown, Sally. "Saviour or Satyr? Makanin's Nomadic Intelligent in Vysokaia-Vysokaia Luna and Ispug (2001–06)." Modern Language Review, vol. 105, no. 3, July 2010, pp. 795–810.
Lipoveckij, Mark Naumovič, and Eliot Borenstein, editors. Russian Postmodernist Fiction: Dialogue with Chaos. M. E. Sharpe, 1999.