2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25
In 1989, the Novy Mir edition published one of the most controversial works of this writer, called "Stroybat". This is a story about life in the barracks of the Soviet army and its once unchanged aspects: mutual responsibility and permissiveness of old-timers, but also about strong friendship and mutual assistance.
"Stroybat" is not the only work of the writer Sergei Kaledin. In addition to him, several more novels and short stories came out from the pen of this author. Many of them have been translated into English, German, French, Danish, Swedish and other languages.
Biography of writer Sergei Kaledin
The future writer, whose full name is Sergey Evgenyevich Kaledin, was born on August 28, 1949 in Moscow. His father Evgeny Alexandrovich Berkenheim was an engineer, and his mother Tamara Georgievna Kalyakina was a translator. Sergei received his last name "Kaledin" from his mother's second husband.
During his school years, Sergei Kaledin had a reputation as a bully and a bully. He graduated from only 8 classes, since he was in the ninthexpelled for another misdemeanor.
Without a higher education, Kaledin managed to try himself in many different professions: he worked as a gravedigger, fireman, watchman, and was a draftsman's apprentice. He entered the Institute of Communications, but after studying one course, he wrote an application asking to be expelled.
Some time later, Sergei Kaledin was drafted into the army. At his own request, the writer served in the construction battalion. The impressions and memories received later became the material for the story "Stroybat".
Kaledin's debut as a writer was the story "The Humble Cemetery", published in the magazine "New World" in 1987. In 1991 and 1996 the novels "The Pop and the Worker" and "Takhana Merkazit" were published.
Currently Sergey Kaledin lives in Moscow, where he continues to work on new works.
Bibliography. "Humble Cemetery"
As in the case of the story "Stroybat", the plot of which is based on Kaledin's personal experience while serving in the army, the work "The Humble Cemetery" also reflects the author's impressions and memories of his work as a gravedigger.
In The Humble Cemetery, Sergei Kaledin reveals to the reader all the details of cemetery life, down to the most vile and creepy details. With business-like professionalism, he describes the work of a gravedigger: the process of creating a pit, burial, installation of tombstones and monuments. Kaledin does not forget to mention how long-forgotten graves are being sold for reburial.
The main character of the story is the gravedigger LeshkaSparrow, a man with a difficult fate. In his life there was a cruel father, a mother who died of cancer, endless wanderings, serving time in a colony. Sparrow constantly drinks, as does his wife, who suffers beatings from her husband.
However, even in this eerie graveyard world, there is a place for hope and humanity. The story of Sergei Kaledin is about this.
In 1990, a performance based on the Humble Cemetery was staged.
Why we lost the war
In this story, Kaledin analyzes the events of World War II. The question immediately arises as to why, in this case, the title refers to defeat. There is no mistake in this.
The author talks about that unknown World War II, all information about which was inaccessible to ordinary people in the USSR, and any mention of them in the media was subjected to strict censorship.
The idea of the story came to Kaledin thanks to Leonid Gurevich, his friend, a veteran of the Finnish and German wars. Once he asked the writer to write a story about why they lost the war. “This is not a victory,” the veteran explained to Kaledin, who was surprised by this idea.
Writer Awards and Prizes
Sergey Kaledin is the owner of the Russian Union of Journalists award "Golden Pen of Russia". This award was given to the writer in 2011 for a series of essays published in the weekly Ogonyok.
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