Vladimir Dmitrievich Dudintsev

Vladimir Dudintsev ( Russian Владимир Дмитриевич Дудинцев * 16 ^{. Jul} / 29. July  1918 ^greg. In Kupyansk in the Oblast Kharkov , Ukraine ; † 23. July 1998 in Moscow ) was a Russian writer .

biography

The father belonged to the Russian nobility and was executed by the Bolsheviks . Despite his aristocratic origins, his son was able to study law in Moscow. During the war he was a company commander and was seriously wounded in the Battle of Leningrad (St. Petersburg). He was then a military prosecutor in Siberia until the end of the war. After the war he was a correspondent for Komsomolskaya Pravda . In 1956 his novel Man does not live on bread alone (Не хлебом единым) was published, which caused a sensation in literature. Soviet readers praised the novel enthusiastically, the literary critics affirmed the critical openness, the party bureaucracy expressed indignation. The author himself fell into disrepute literarily.

The fact that the author was widely read for his constructive criticism of the Soviet economic bureaucracy during the so-called thaw period and even aroused the displeasure of Soviet Prime Minister Khrushchev made the novel famous.

In 1988 Dudintsev was awarded the State Prize of the USSR in recognition of his work after the publication of his second novel White Robes (Белые одежды) . The Soviet head of state Gorbachev had turned away from the communist state ideology and implemented the ideas of the reformers.

The novel: Man does not live on bread alone

The novel Man does not live on bread alone describes the conflicts between the young engineer Lopatkin and the Soviet economic and party apparatus for eight years. He invented a machine for the production of cast iron pipes using the centrifugal casting process, which promises a more economical production of pipes. However, it comes from his individual and not a collective work and thus contradicts the Soviet doctrine. Lopatkin lives as an outsider. He wants to make his invention usable for production and turns to Drosdow, the general director of a combine in Musga, Siberia, with the construction plans. This refers to the possibilities for examination of the proposals by certain government agencies. Lopatkin's submissions are ultimately checked again and again by an innovation-hostile and self-righteous scientific commission under the authority of Avdiev, which rejects his proposals with the majority of its members. Lopatkin reacts to the negative decisions with complaints about the situation, but does not break through the circle of decision-makers and their arguments. Avdiyev's working group is also realizing its own casting machine, which, however, works objectively worse and is sharply criticized by Lopatkin.

Lopatkin continuously makes himself untrustworthy with his lover Jeanne (Russian Anja), because he repeatedly announces the decisive breakthrough for the realization of his project, her distance from Lopatkin is growing ever greater. At the same time, Nadeshda Sergeevna (called Nadja), Drozdov's second and very young wife, falls in love with Lopatkin. She is gradually breaking away from Drozdov and his privileged position and supports Lopatkin: The latter moves from Musga to Moscow in order to be closer to the crucial positions in the political and scientific apparatus. He shares a poor accommodation with Professor Yevgeny Ustinovich, who is also an unrecognized inventor and has gone the same unsuccessful path through the institutions. Among other things, Nadja sells an expensive mink coat and donates the money to Lopatkin.

Since the Scientific Council under Avdijew feels that the persistent complaints are under pressure, it reports to Lopatkin: The procedure will ultimately be discontinued, but Lopatkin's ideas will not be implemented. The army shows interest in the development of Lopatkin's machine and realizes a professional continuation and assumption of the costs. Lopatkin, however, was sentenced to forced labor in a labor camp because of a formal error in the organization of his work group - he hired Nadja as a member of staff - for grave betrayal of secrets . While Lopatkin is beginning his detention, Avdiev's circle tries to destroy all of Lopatkin's documents.

A conspiracy in Lopatkin's favor prevents correspondence from being burned and forwarded to the prosecution. Based on this information, which was not taken into account in the proceedings, the verdict against Lopatkin will be overturned and he will be rehabilitated. After a year and a half, he found his machine successfully implemented by former allied employees. The shortcomings of the machine from the work group around Avdijew, which was widely praised and realized, are now produced on a technically far poorer level: the significant additional requirement for cast iron is to be masked with the help of the change in the production standard.

Jeanne realizes that Lopatkin now shares more with Nadja, finally withdraws from the relationship and leaves Moscow. Lopatkin, in turn, tries to get Nadja, who has since separated from Drozdov, and asks her for her hand. With the successful implementation of his plans and without the fight against the apparatus, Lopatkin's future appears uncertain.

Quote

After Lopatkin's return from the labor camp, he said to Nadja: The word 'deprivation of liberty' is not entirely correct. Anyone who has learned to think can never be completely deprived of their freedom.

Works in German translations

• Man does not live on bread alone . 1958, Gütersloh: Bertelsmann, translator Ingo-Manfred Schille
• A new year fairy tale . 1960, Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer, translator Gisela Drohla
• Words from the dark. Stories 1960, Hamburg: Nannen
• White robes. Novel . Volk und Welt, Berlin 1990, trans. Erich Ahrndt and Ingeborg Schröder ISBN 3-353-00508-0

Web links

• Literature by and about Vladimir Dmitrijewitsch Dudinzew in the catalog of the German National Library
• Biography on peoples.ru
• Biography on krugosvet.ru
• Portrait on Radio Liberty (Russian)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Edition Bertelsmann Lesering, 1958: p. 363