Pretender to the Throne

Vladimir Nikolayevich Voinovich was born in Stalinabad, Soviet Union on September 26, 1932. He worked as a herdsman and trained as a locksmith before serving in the Soviet Army from 1951 to 1955. He began writing poetry while in the army and in the mid-1950s started publishing stories in the magazine Novy Mir. One story, I'd Be Honest if They'd Let Me, about a construction supervisor whose conscience is bothered by the shoddy structures he is ordered to build, was singled out as being dangerous.

His novel, The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin, did not clear the Soviet censorship bar in 1969 but circulated underground and was published in Europe four years later. He was questioned repeatedly by the K.G.B. He left the country in 1980 and joined faculty of the Institute of Fine Arts in Munich. His Soviet citizenship was revoked in 1970 and he was unable to return for a decade. His other novels included Moscow 2042, The Fur Hat, Monumental Propaganda, and The Crimson Pelican. He died of a heart attack on July 27, 2018 at the age of 85.

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