Friedrich Neznansky: biography, photo

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The writer of detective stories, referring himself to the "anti-totalitarian branch of Russian literature" - Friedrich Evseevich Neznansky. Years of life - 1932-2013. This article is about him.

What was he like? A deeply decent man who has challenged totalitarianism and injustice with his creativity. He represented the nature of both Soviet and Russian crime to the smallest detail, knew the bottlenecks of the judicial system.

His favorite quote was Kant's saying that without justice there is nothing left that gives value to human life. How relevant it sounds now!

Lawyer and writer

The desire to become a writer came to him while studying at the Moscow Law Institute. As a student, the future writer attended a literary seminar, where he learned to write short prose. The dream remained … But Friedrich Neznansky came to literature, already having a solid work experience:

• investigator of the Prosecutor's Office of the Krasnodar Territory (1954-1957) and the Moscow City Prosecutor's Office - in 1960-1969;
• as an attorney at the Metropolitan City Bar Association (1969-1977).

To be more precise, Friedrich Neznansky began writing prose in 1969, while simultaneously working inMoscow prosecutor's office. But that was just a test of the pen… Twenty years of professional legal activity of Friedrich Evseevich were surrounded by investigators, prosecutors and operatives, who eventually turned into characters in his detective novels. The future writer wanted to create novels on professional topics, really important and relevant, but forbidden in the USSR.

Political detective about Russia from an émigré writer

From September 27, 1977, Friedrich Neznansky changed his life dramatically. The emigrant's biography began its countdown for a 45-year-old man. He flew to the US for permanent residence. Qualification, erudition and knowledge of the language did their job. The former Soviet capital lawyer turned out to be in demand on the other side of the Atlantic. He taught at American universities: Harvard, Columbia, New York. He worked hard. From his pen came 5 monographs concerning the directive law of the USSR.

While in America, in collaboration with Eduard Topol, he writes the novels "Red Square" (1983) and "Journalist for Brezhnev" (1981). This is bold prose, revealing the hard-hitting nuances of Soviet politics. The writer works in the genre of political detective story. Knowing the practice of falsifying criminal cases by Soviet law enforcement agencies, Friedrich Evseevich Neznansky paints a convincing picture of lawlessness. He dared to recklessness and is completely devoid of "internal editor". He is not afraid, by naming real names, to show in what cases Soviet high politics turned out to be closely connected withdirty and low criminality. The latter, of course, was denied by Soviet propaganda.

Police detectives about Russian crime

In the future, Neznansky moves away from co-authorship with Topol, starting independent work in the genre of a police detective, invariably turning to the real criminal practice of the USSR and Russia for plots. The writer motivatedly departs from the canons of the Soviet police novel. He achieves dynamic narrative.

In 1984, Neznansky wrote the novel "Fair in Sokolniki", in 1989 - "Notes of the Investigator". Thus, Neznansky moves on to writing books in the mass culture format. He becomes successful in creating bestsellers. The writer's works are printed in large numbers in the USA, Germany, Britain, France, Japan.

The cycles of detective stories that brought fame to Neznansky

The popularity of the writer was brought by the cycles of novels "Mr. Lawyer" (31 books), "Turkish March" (116 books), "Gloria Agency" (26 books), "Winners are not judged" (7 books), "Return Turkish" (25 books).

The series “Mr. Lawyer” tells about the difficult work of a member of the Bar Association Yuri Gordeev, who previously served in the Prosecutor General's Office. This series of books captures the reader with the intricacies of corruption and intrigue present in the judicial world (bribery, blackmail, false acquittals and convictions, contract killings, “alibi of justice”). This series of novelstalks about that side of the lawyer's work, which is hidden from prying eyes.

The cycle of books “March of Turetsky” tells about the investigator for especially important cases of the General Prosecutor's Office of Russia Alexander Borisovich Turetsky. He is not assigned simple tasks. This is the most favorite image of the writer Friedrich Neznansky. He created it by consolidating his personal impressions of his most respected colleagues, with whom, as they say, he previously did the same work: investigators of the Prosecutor General's Office Alexander Borisovich Turetsky, Yevgeny Sidorenko, other operatives and investigators, including people whose real surnames entered the novels without corrections (meaning General Gryaznov).

The series of novels “Gloria Agency” not without humor tells about the investigations of the private detective agency of the same name, which is headed by Denis Gryaznov.

Filmography

The filmography of the writer is quite extensive. It all started fifteen years ago. According to the scenario of the novel "Fair in Sokolniki", directed by Yuri Moroz, the film "Black Square" was shot. The script, which was written by Friedrich Neznansky, gathered an excellent team of actors: Vasily Lanovoy, Vitaly Solomin, Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, Elena Yakovleva … In a word, the first pancake turned out to be solid, without becoming a lump.

However, the popular love for the author was brought by the series "March of the Turkish", where the role of the investigator of the Moscow City Prosecutor's Office for especially important cases was played by Alexander Domogarov. The actor lived the life of his Turkish character, giving his allas if playing Hamlet.

Friedrich Neznansky expressed his gratitude to the actor more than once in an interview.

Moving to Germany, death

In 1985, a successful writer, accepted into the elite American writers' club Edgar Allan Poe, moved to live in Frankfurt. He is actively involved in politics, joining the NTS (People's Labor Union). Here Neznansky works at the publishing house of the newspaper Posev.

In 1986 he was awarded the Man of Achievement Award.

Friedrich Evseevich died at the age of 80 in the small Bavarian Alpine resort town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The master of the modern detective, unfortunately, is no longer with us…

Instead of a conclusion

Friedrich Evseevich Neznansky is a Russian writer with amazing productivity. In a year, 8-9 detective novels with a unique, non-repetitive plot often came out from under his pen.

The writer himself did not shroud his creative laboratory in secret. The professional vision of the hidden aspects of the surrounding reality, which is characteristic of a lawyer and prosecutor, who has a huge practice of investigations, and the skill of a writer, helped. The information obtained by reading newspapers between the lines sometimes gave him up to 70% of the plot! The insight of the master detective was simply astonishing. So, for example, he described the situation of the State Emergency Committee in advance in the novel Pandora's Box. Creating novels, Friedrich Neznansky worked selflessly (the photo below allows you to see him in his office).

The writer was able to accurately describe the work of the investigator. His MarchTurkish” - perhaps the best series of books currently written, telling about the real affairs of Russian law enforcement officers in the dashing 90s…