Andrei Donatowitsch Sinjawski

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Andrei Sinjawski (1975)

Andrei Donatowitsch Sinjawski ( Russian Андрей Донатович Синявский , scientific transliteration Andrej Donatovič Sinjavskij ; born  October 8, 1925 in Moscow ; † February 25, 1997 in Fontenay-aux-Roses near Paris ) was a Russian writer , literary critic and Soviet literary critic and historian in the Soviet Union political prisoner.

Life

Immediately after graduating from school he was drafted into the army in 1943 and served as a radio technician in the air force during World War II. After demobilization in 1946, he studied at the Philological Faculty of Lomonossow University in Moscow until 1949 , where he worked a. a. about Mayakovsky . He taught at the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute and was released there in 1957 when it abroad after the publication of the novel Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak came to the so-called purges in the cultural scene. Sinjawski went to the Moscow Theater School and became one of the leading literary critics of Nowy Mir (New World) magazine , edited by Alexander Twardowski , one of the most liberal magazines in the Soviet Union in the early 1960s.

Since 1955 he wrote prose himself, but was unable to publish his texts. Therefore, he published some system-critical texts abroad under the pseudonym Abram Terz ( Абрам Терц ). He explained his pseudonym as follows: "Sinjawski is a critic, Sinjawski is a professor ... Terz is a pure artist - Abram Terz is impudent and cheeky, a thief". - The historical "Abram Terz" was a Russian-Jewish bandit.

In 1959, published under the author name Terz, What does socialist realism mean? he analyzed official Soviet literature and diagnosed the low-conflict practice of so-called socialist realism, based on the party's political principles, as the main cause of the poor quality of Soviet literature. Instead, he called for the fantastic to return to the tradition of Gogol . In his own works he followed this requirement and worked with fantastic and supernatural elements (short story book Fantastic Stories ).

Sinjawski's grave in Fontenay-aux-Roses

When the KGB found out who was hiding behind the name Terz, Sinyawski was arrested in September 1965. His arrest and that of the writer Juli Daniel (1925–1988) were to initiate a development that would result in the first campaign for civil rights behind the Iron Curtain . It was supported by a loose coalition of natural scientists, mathematicians and other representatives of the urban intelligentsia. 

In 1966 he was sentenced to seven years in a labor camp in a sensational show trial "for anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda". Juli Daniel, who was also charged, was sentenced to five years in a labor camp. By refusing to admit guilt, the two authors not only triggered a flood of international protests, but more important was that in a letter to party leader Brezhnev from Soviet artists (including Marlen Chuzijew , Maja Plissezkaja , Michail Romm , Innokenti Smoktunowski , Konstantin Paustowski and Kornei Tschukowski ) and scientists (like Lev Arzimowitsch , Pyotr Kapiza , Andrei Sakharov and Igor Tamm ) criticized the return to Stalinist methods, which historians consider to be the initial spark of the Soviet dissident movement.

Although the KGB did not want Sinyawski to return from prison and had therefore ordered that the writer be assigned only to the heaviest physical work, he survived the labor camps. In 1973 Sinjawski was allowed to travel to Paris with his family . There he was a lecturer at the Sorbonne , where he taught Russian literature. Together with his wife Maria Rosanowa he founded the magazine Syntaxis, which appeared in 37 issues between 1978 and 2001. He died of cancer at the age of 71.

bibliography

Novels
  • Спокойной ночи (1984)
  • Кошкин дом. Роман дальнего следования (1998)
Novellas and short stories
  • Суд идёт (1959)
  • Пхенц (1959)
    • German: Pchenz. With 8 pen drawings by Norbert Behrend. Anabis, Berlin 1971.
  • Гололедица (1961)
  • В цирке (1961)
  • Графоманы (Из рассказов о моей жизни) (1961)
  • Квартиранты (1961)
  • Ты и я (1961)
  • Любимов (1964)
    • German: Lyubimow. Translated by Lotte Stuart. Zsolnay, Wien & Hamburg 1966. Also as: rororo-Taschenbuch # 1196, 1969. Also as: Moewig Phantastica # 1808, 1984, ISBN 3-8118-1808-2 .
  • Голос из хора (1973)
    • German: One voice in the choir. With a foreword by Igor Golomschtok. Translated by Swetlana Geier. Zsolnay, Vienna & Hamburg 1974, ISBN 3-552-02630-4 . Also as: dtv-Taschenbuch # 1331, 1978, ISBN 3-423-01331-1 .
  • Крошка Цорес (1980)
    • German: Klein Zores. Translated by Swetlana Geier. S. Fischer, Frankfurt a. M. 1982, ISBN 3-10-074402-0 .
  • Золотой шнурок (1987)
Collections
  • Фантастические повести (1961)
    • German: Fantastic stories: Complete stories. Translated by Eduard Suslik and Anna Moravec. Zsolnay, Vienna & Hamburg 1967.
  • Фантастический мир Абрама Терца (1967)
  • Собрание сочинений в двух томах (1992)
  • Путешествие на Чёрную речку (1999)
  • Литературный процесс в России (2003)
Non-fiction
  • Роман М. Горького “Жизнь Клима Самгина” и история русской общественной мысли конца XIX - начала XX века (1952, dissertation)
  • Пикассо (1960, with Igor Golomschtok)
  • Поэзия первых лет революции: 1917-1920 (1964, with Andrei Menschutin)
  • Прогулки с Пушкиным (1973)
    • German: Promenades with Pushkin. Translated by Swetlana Geier. Ullstein, Frankfurt a. M. & Berlin 1977, ISBN 3-550-06269-9 .
  • В тени Гоголя (1975)
    • English: In the shadow of Gogol. Translated by Swetlana Geier. Propylaea, Berlin a. a. 1979, ISBN 3-549-05577-3 .
  • «Опавшие листья» Василия Васильевича Розанова (1982)
  • Основы советской цивилизации (1988)
    • German: The dream of the new man or the Soviet civilization. Translated by Swetlana Geier. S. Fischer, Frankfurt a. M. 1989, ISBN 3-10-074406-3 .
  • Иван-дурак: Очерк русской народной веры (1991)
    • German: Ivan the Stupid: From Russian Popular Beliefs. Translated by Swetlana Geier. S. Fischer, Frankfurt a. M. 1990, ISBN 3-10-074412-8 .
German compilations
  • The process begins and other prose. Translated by Gisela Drohla and Eduard Suslik. Fischer library # 777, Frankfurt a. M. & Hamburg 1966.
  • Thoughts behind bars. Translated by Hendrik Berinson. Zsolnay, Vienna & Hamburg 1968.

Work edition:

  • The process is running: The works of Abram Terz until 1965. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-10-074113-7 .
  • One voice in the choir: The Works of Abraham Terz, Volume 2. Translated by Swetlana Geier. Edited and with an afterword by Taja Gut. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 2009, ISBN 978-3-10-074436-4 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Andrei Sinyavsky  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cf. Abram Terz: What is Socialist Realism? - taja-gut.ch (p. 99 ff.)
  2. ^ Benjamin Nathans: Moscow Human Rights Defender to Amnesty International. In: Sources on the history of human rights. Working Group on Human Rights in the 20th Century, May 2015, accessed on January 11, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Людмила Поликовская: Синявский, Андрей Донатович (псевдоним Абрам Терц) (1925–1997) . Энциклопедия «Кругосвет».
personal data
SURNAME Sinjawski, Andrei Donatowitsch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Синявский, Андрей Донатович (Russian); Abram, Terc (pseudonym); Abram, Terz (pseudonym); Abram, Tertz (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian writer
DATE OF BIRTH October 8, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Moscow
DATE OF DEATH February 25, 1997
Place of death Fontenay-aux-Roses