Vsevolod Anisimowitsch Kochetov

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Vsevolod Kochetov ( Russian Всеволод Анисимович Кочетов * January 22 ^{. Jul} / 4. February  1912 ^greg. In Novgorod , Russian Empire ; † 4. November 1973 in Moscow , Russian SFSR ) was a Russian writer and (cultural) official. He represented conservative-pro-Soviet positions.

Life

Vsevolod Kochetov was born into a peasant family. In 1927 he moved from Novgorod to Leningrad , in 1931 he graduated from a technical college and then worked as an agronomist. In 1938 he became a reporter for the Leningradskaya Pravda newspaper. During the Great Patriotic War, Kochetov worked as a war correspondent for various newspapers on the Leningrad Front . Since 1946 he devoted himself entirely to writing ( On the plains of Neva , "На невских равнинах" ), described war experiences and was characterized by consistent persecution of the party line.

In 1952 he published the novel Die Schurbins ( "Журбины" ; has also been translated into German), which is supposed to depict the life of a workers' dynasty. The book has been republished several times and translated into numerous languages. The novel The Jershov Brothers served as a kind of antipole to Dudinzew's novel Not only from bread alone and was even criticized in Pravda for exaggeration.

In his further novel, What do you want? ( "Чего же ты хочешь?" ) Vsevolod Kochetov relentlessly reckons with phenomena that he always encountered. The pamphlet-like novel takes a stand against Western values , criticizes the 'bourgeois propaganda', the alleged lack of vigilance of Soviet people, the machinations of agents of imperialism who try to ruin Soviet youth, and so on. The novel was not well received in Pravda either was never published again in Russia. The Soviet intellectuals mocked the novel with parodies (using samizdat ) like "Чего же ты хохочешь?" ( What are you laughing at? ), in which the novel The Jershov Brothers is not reconciled (by naming the Jeschow Brothers there ). In 1969, 20 representatives of the Soviet intelligentsia wrote a protest against the publication of the "dark man" text What do you want? .

Kochetov also acted as a cultural functionary, although he always had a militant communist attitude, but as an honored communist official he did a lot to improve the living conditions of his colleagues. He received numerous Soviet awards ( Order of Lenin , etc.). 1955 to 1959 he worked as editor-in-chief of the Literaturnaja Gazeta , since 1961 of the magazine Oktjabr . At that time Oktyabr acted as a counterpoint to Nowy Mir , whose editor-in-chief was Alexander Trifonowitsch Twardowski . While Twardoski was considered liberal and pro-Western and had authors who were somewhat critical of the regime published, Kochetov's Oktyabr was completely loyal to the regime and published predominantly socialist texts.

Kochetov committed suicide in 1973 when the suffering caused by cancer became unbearable. It is noted that his manly decision reconciled some of his opponents with him.

Opinions on Kochetov

• "Kochetov's primitive comments on his own texts only underline his lack of literary talent, which is so clearly revealed in pseudo-discussions on which he builds all of his works." - Wolfgang Kasack

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.interlit2001.com/guerchik-st-1.htm