Alexander Kabakov: biography. Writing career, work in journalism

Alexander Kabakov is a Russian writer and publicist, winner of many awards. This person is the author of these famous works, like “The Defector” and “Blow for Blow, or the Kristapovich Approach.” The first novel was filmed and shown on TV during the legendary putsch. The second work formed the basis for writing the script for the film “Ten Years Without the Right of Correspondence.” Few people know that in his youth Alexander Kabakov did not think about a writing career and was engaged in work far from journalism.

Childhood and youth of the future writer

Alexander Kabakov is a writer whose biography began in 1943 in the city of Novosibirsk. It was in this city that his parents - Frida Isaakovna and Abram Yakovlevich - were evacuated during World War II. His father was a missile officer, and as a child, Alexander lived in a typical military family, which often changed their place of residence. Most of my childhood future writer spent in such military towns as Orsha and Kapustin Yar. It was in the second town that the missile test site was located at that time, where the father of the future publicist served.

Alexander Kabakov, a fairly famous writer today, in his childhood, according to him, was highly dependent on his father’s opinion. Despite his clearly humanitarian inclinations, he decided to follow in the footsteps of Abram Yakovlevich. When the question arose about where to get higher education, the future publicist decided to enter the Dnepropetrovsk Institute. He chose the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, which, thanks to his unique memory, he graduated very successfully.

The work is far from journalism

Alexander Kabakov himself says that he turned out to be a pretty good engineer. He for a long time worked in one of the rocket design bureaus and easily coped with his work. For almost 10 years he lived in the city of Dnepropetrovsk. He also played in KVN and tried to write some notes about jazz. Kabakov himself says that already at this time he felt the need to write and tried himself in literature. But in his youth, he often did not have enough patience and endurance to finish his sketches and complete his creations.

Writing career, work in journalism

Alexander Abramovich Kabakov, whose photo is posted in this article, radically changed his life by deciding to move to Moscow.

There he tried journalism, which brought him some fame. For almost 17 years, starting in 1972, he worked for the famous newspaper Gudok. His subsequent career developed as follows:

• Since 1988, he has been working at the Moscow News publication, where he was hired as a columnist, and eventually became executive secretary and deputy editor-in-chief.
• Since 1999, Kabakov has been working in publishing house"Kommersant". At first he performs the duties of a special correspondent, and over time becomes the head of the department.
• Since 2000, he has simultaneously acted as a columnist for the Stolichnaya Evening Newspaper and worked for the magazines New Eyewitness and Sakvoyazh SV.

For the first time, readers were able to learn about Kabakov as an author only in 1975. The Literaturnaya Gazeta began printing it humorous stories which were successful. In total, about 100 such stories were published in different newspapers. And only 13 years after his first writing debut, Alexander Abramovich published his legendary novel, which appeared in literary circles became a real event.

The novel that brought fame

Kabakov says that, starting in 1980, he tried to write serious material, but clearly understood: no one would publish his work. In his opinion, novels, novellas and stories that he to a greater extent I wrote for my own pleasure and could not interest a wide range of readers.

One such novel, The Defector, was published in June 1989. The work was published in the magazine “Iskusstvo Kino”, and after that Alexander Kabakov gained wide popularity. This novel became a discovery not only in professional literature. He gained enormous popularity among ordinary people.

No one could have expected such a fabulous success; the book sold more than a million copies. Such attention to the work was explained by the fact that the release of the novel coincided with the mood that reigned in society. Many realized that soon Soviet Union will not happen, and it was not entirely clear how to live further and what awaits great country in future.

Kabakov was successfully able to model in his novel the subsequent development of events and the formation of a new society. The plot of "Unreturned" is that one of the scientific workers has a special gift - he can transport himself into the future. Having learned about this ability, representatives come to him secret services and wish to use information from the future to adjust current policies. Thus, the book models the fate of Moscow and describes the events of 1993.

The success of the novel was so stunning that Radio Liberty staged a play based on it, and later it was used for a film script. By some irony of fate, it was this tape that was shown on television on the day of the putsch. Famous publishers out of 10 different countries bought the rights to publish this novel.

List of works

After the publication of “The Unreturned,” Alexander Abramovich Kabakov became a recognizable and popular author. Among his most famous works can be distinguished:

• "Aksenov";
• "Adventures of a Real Man";
• “Knowingly false fabrications”;
• « Last Hero»;
• "Writer";
• “Everything can be fixed”;
• "Fugitive";
• "Late Guest";
• "Impostor".

Prizes and awards

At different times it was noted:

• Awards “Golden Calf”, “Triumph” and “Moskovsky Komsomolets”.
• Award " Literary newspaper».
• Prize “Prose of the Year” (received in 2005).
• Award " Big Book».
• Prize named after Ivan Bunin.
• Big prize to them.

Extraordinary works

Many attribute Kabakov’s success to the author’s unique style. Most of his works contain ordinary everyday life, which is close and understandable to every reader. At the same time, he very easily combines this simple everyday life with mystical prophecies and fantasy. The author successfully works in various genres - from romance novels before political thrillers and militants.

For example, his work “Luggage Storage: A Philistine Book” talks about simple things(such as a hat), which are used by us at certain moments in life, and sometimes can tell about an entire era.

One of latest works The book that made us talk about Kabakov was the book “Aksenov”, written jointly with Evgeny Popov. It contains various memories, rare documents, testimonies and unknown stories that are designed to debunk stereotypes regarding Aksenov himself and his works.

Today's life of a writer

Today, Alexander Abramovich works in journalism and is working on his new works. Sometimes he comments on current political events, has his own opinion, but prefers not to interfere directly in politics. One of the main achievements Russian people he considers the overthrow of the communist system, and is glad that, despite frequent thoughts of emigrating from the USSR, he still remained in his homeland.

The new collection of prose by Alexander Kabakov, like the previous one, includes all genres, except perhaps the novel. Here there is free fantasy fiction and almost protocol authenticity of non-fiction, stories about unnamed historical characters And real stories fictional...

• 15 June 2015, 16:30

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“This book is a memoir of things in my life. The entire second half of the 20th century and a good part of the 21st century were preserved in these objects. I think that they can say no less about time than people.

I firmly believe that the heroes’ clothes and small accessories are no less important than their portraits, everyday habits, and even social status. Onegin’s “wide bolivar” and “waking breguet”, “Navarin smoke tailcoat with flame” and Chichikov’s deftly twisted tie, Oblomov’s robe, Belikov’s umbrella and sunglasses, the “Manlicher” pistol stolen by Pavka Korchagin, “Jordanian trousers” from Aksenov’s “It’s a pity” , that you were not with us,” lend-lease Leather Jacket Trifonovsky Shulepnikov - this whole flea market, the list, in modern terms, of brands and trends is the literary flesh of the named heroes. I won’t even talk about Balzac’s careerists and the titans of bourgeoisism created by Galsworthy - without frock coats and dresses for morning visits, they don’t exist at all...”

Alexander...

• October 24, 2014, 11:28

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"Glass without walls" - A new book writer and journalist Alexander Kabakov. These are old essays and new stories, travel notes and farewells to loved ones... “The result, it seems to me, was very expressive paintings– present, past and long past. And it turned out that times are changing, but we are not very... All this has been known for a long time, and there was no need to specifically write a book about it. But other people's experience is instructive and knowledge of it is never superfluous. And a “glass without walls” is not just a puddle on the table, but still a former glass” (Alexander...

• April 20, 2014, 11:47 pm

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The book “Aksenov” by Alexander Kabakov and Evgeny Popov is more than a memoir. This is a portrait of the Artist against the background of his Time, free conversation free people O a loved one, with whom they happened to be friends for many years of the stormy, grotesque, phantasmagoric Soviet and post-Soviet life. First-hand evidence, unknown stories and rare documents refute established stereotypes of perception of both the writer himself and him...

• 16 April 2014, 15:38

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The hero of Alexander Kabakov’s new novel “The Old Man and the Angel,” Professor Kuznetsov, in his eighties, realizes that his life was in vain: he married without love, changed women without passion, and was left alone.

Heart attack... but that's where it all begins. A strange colonel of some strange FSB, Mikhailov, appears, we are talking about the soul and the Devil, about happiness and power... And the professor would not have escaped the clawed paws if not for an angel named Tanya. It turns out that life is still possible...

• 12 March 2014, 01:53

Genre: ,

Famous prose writer, the author of novels about “The Adventures of a Real Man” and “Moscow Tales”, Alexander Kabakov collected in his new book “The Role of Crystal in family life» plays written in different years life. A fairy tale that grew out of Soviet life is “The Role of Crystal in Family Life”, a phantasmagoria that arose from the madness of current reality – “Signs” and a completely momentary “clinical comedy” called “Intensive Care”.

All three plays are equally far from everyday realism, their characters find themselves in completely unthinkable situations, but in the end they pull themselves out and continue their march through...

• 4 February 2014, 19:27

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Sandra Levine - American writer, author of a collection of detective stories and... a figment of the imagination of Alexander Kabakov. “My reader does not need to explain that Sandra Levine’s stories were included in the book of my stories not by mistake - I gave birth to her, this lady exists solely on paper. However, at the same time, she is no less real than all the characters in the stories written on my behalf in last years and included in this book.

Sandra Levine's detective stories and my other fantasies on current topics are two sides of the same thing...

• November 29, 2013, 02:44

Genre: ,

In the book “We Can’t Survive the Winter,” Alexander Kabakov collected his most confessional, frank writings. There are always two heroes - he and she; their relationship is not simple, full of difficulties and always sad - be it a romance popular singer and classical pianist, or chance meeting on the train... Moreover, these stories take place in the turbulent nineties, a time of “delusional visions and disruption of normal life.”

The collection includes the novel “The Late Guest”, the stories “The Party Girl and the Poker Man”, “We Can’t Live...

• 14 November 2013, 04:51

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“The first kondratiy hit Pyotr Mikhailovich in the fall. Of course, P.M., a completely cultured man by modern standards, knew that the archaic “kondratiy” in medical terms is nothing more than a stroke, and the passing doctor didn’t even suspect he had a stroke, and indeed, there seemed to be no there were no well-known signs of a stroke, or, what is the same thing, an apoplexy, or, again, diarrhea, diarrhea. He got up and walked, only his legs were weak, and suddenly, already in the taxi and in the hotel, an uncontrollable trembling set in: his arms and whole body were shaking with terrible force, throwing him in different directions. But there was no paralysis, no loss of speech, not even dizziness, so there was nothing to talk about any kind of diarrhea, but P.M. liked to call what happened to him in November in London that way. P.M. got to London that autumn as a result of a sequence of all the most important events of his fifty-five year life. For the time being, he lived normally, moderately unsuccessfully and successfully, not deviating too much in actions from the norm for his origin and circle, but deviating in thoughts, which would give an intelligent and experienced person reason to predict the volcanic eruption that occurred in fate...

"Amazing good luck in literary affairs occurred in 2005,” says the writer. - “For the novel “Everything Can Be Fixed” I received prestigious award named after Apollon Grigoriev, awarded literary critics, and the cycle of stories "Moscow Tales" was named "prose of the year" at the Moscow International book fair.

Alexander Kabakov was born in 1943 into the family of an officer. After the war, he lived with his father at the first Soviet missile test site. He graduated from the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of the university, served in the army, and was an engineer in a rocket design bureau.

In 1972, Alexander began working professionally as a journalist in the Gudok newspaper. He was a reporter, special correspondent, feuilletonist, and head of the information department of Gudok. During the years of perestroika, he became a columnist, then deputy editor-in-chief of the Moscow News newspaper. Over the past ten years, he has worked as a special correspondent and department head at the Kommersant publishing house, as a columnist for the Capital Evening Newspaper, and as deputy editor-in-chief of the New Eyewitness magazine.

In the 80s of the last century, Alexander Kabakov published humorous stories in various publications, and received several awards for them. literary prizes. In 1988, he wrote the dystopian story “The Defector,” which, when published a year later, had big success, was translated and published in the 90s in

France, Germany, Italy, Spain, all Scandinavian countries, USA, Japan and China. He also wrote and published the novels “Blow to Blow”, “Writer”, “Impostor”, “The Last Hero”, “Late Guest”, “Everything Is Fixable”, several dozen novels and short stories, hundreds of essays and articles. Two films were based on the novels: “Ten Years Without the Right of Correspondence” (1990, directed by V. Naumov) and “Defector” (1991, directed by S. Snezhkin). In recent years, he has been constantly published in the Znamya magazine and the Vagrius publishing house.

“Amazing successes in literary affairs occurred in 2005,” says the writer. “For the novel “Everything Can Be Fixed,” I received the prestigious Apollo Grigoriev Prize, awarded by literary critics, and the cycle of stories “Moscow Tales” was named “prose of the year” at the Moscow international book fair. And even “person of the year” on Rambler!”

I was never a member of the CPSU or any other party. He has not joined and does not join the Writers' Union and PEN Club.

Alexander Kabakov is married and has a daughter from his first marriage

Alexander Abramovich Kabakov(born October 22, Novosibirsk) - Russian writer and publicist.

Biography

Alexander Kabakov was born in evacuation in Novosibirsk into the family of Abram Yakovlevich and Frida Isaakovna Kabakov. Graduated from the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Dnepropetrovsk University. After graduating from university, he worked as an engineer at the Yangel rocket design bureau at Yuzhmash.

During the same period, Alexander Kabakov was a columnist for the Stolichnaya Evening Newspaper and deputy editor-in-chief of the New Eyewitness magazine.

Currently - Chief Editor magazine "Sakvoyazh SV", published in periodicals as a publicist and columnist.

Alexander Kabakov is the chairman of the jury of the Russian Booker 2006 award.

Based on the works of Alexander Kabakov, the films “Ten Years Without the Right of Correspondence” (directed by V. Naumov) and “Defector” (directed by S. Snezhkin) were made.

Kabakov's books have been published in many countries around the world, including the USA, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, all Scandinavian countries, Japan and China.

In 2011, Alexander Kabakov, in collaboration with Evgeny Popov, published a book of memoirs “Aksyonov”. The authors are extremely concerned about the issue of “writer’s fate”, which relates to the intricacies of biography and the birth of a great Personality. The main task of the book is to resist the distortion of facts for the sake of one or another situation.

On October 3-4, 2014, Alexander Abramovich took part in the theatrical online readings “Karenina. Live edition".

Works

• “Deviantly false fabrications”, M., Book Chamber, 1989. - 224 pp., 5,000 copies.
• “Defector”, M., Dialogue of Cultures, 1990 - 128 pp., 300,000 copies.
• “Defector”, Odessa, Variant, 1990. - 48 pp., 250,000 copies.
• "Kristapovich's Campaign", M., Ogonyok - Variant., 1990 - 160 pp., 31,000 copies.
• “Defector”, L., Petropol, 1991 - 36 pp., 50,000 copies.
• “Blow for blow, or Kristapovich’s Approach”, M., Avlad-Fain, 1993. - 208 pp., 100,000 copies.
• “Writer”, Samara, 1992. - 96 pp., 50,000 copies.
• “The Adventures of a Real Man” M., Vagrius, 1993. - 320 pp., 75,000 copies.
• "The Pretender", novel
• “The Last Hero”, M., Vagrius, - St. Petersburg, Lan, 1995. - 208 pp., 50,000 copies.
• “The Last Hero”, M., Vagrius, 1996. - 352 pp., 10,000 copies.
• “The Last Hero”, M., Vagrius, 2001. - 368 pp., 7,000 copies.
• "The Late Guest", novel
• Arrival Hall. M., Vagrius, 1999. - 414 pp., 5,000 copies.
• Cafe "Youth", M., Vagrius, 1999 - 464 pp., 5,000 copies.
• “Everything Can Be Fixed”, novel - “Big Apollo Grigoriev Prize” and “Big Book” Prize
• “Moscow Tales”, collection (2005) - Ivan Bunin Prize and Prose of the Year prize
• “Kristapovich’s Campaign”, M., Ogonyok-Variant, 1990
• "Travels of the Extrapolator and Other Tales" (2000)
• "Escape Counts" (2001)
• "The Fugitive" (2008)
• “Aksyonov”, (co-authored with Evgeny Popov, 2011)
• “We've passed. Cars of the last century in memories with pictures" (2012)
• "The Old Man and the Angel", novel (2013)
• "Birthday of a Middle-Aged Woman" (2010)
• “Luggage Storage: Philistine Book” (2015)

Awards, nominations

• 2005 - Apollo Grigoriev Grand Prize (novel “Everything is Fixable”)
• 2005 - Prize “Prose of the Year” (collection “Moscow Tales”)
• 2006 - Winner of the Big Book Award (second place, novel “Everything Can Be Fixed”)
• 2006 - Finalist of the “Big Book” award (collection “Moscow Tales”)
• 2006 - Ivan Bunin Prize (collection “Moscow Tales”)

Criticism

• Stanislav Sekretov // New world. - 2005. - № 6 .
• Alexander Chantsev// October. - 2005. - No. 9.
• Pavel Timoshinov// Literature news.
• Lev Pirogov// Literary newspaper. - 2011. - No. 48.

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• in the library of Maxim Moshkov

Excerpt characterizing Kabakov, Alexander Abramovich

The old count, who had always kept a huge hunt, but now had transferred the entire hunt to the jurisdiction of his son, on this day, September 15th, having fun, got ready to leave too.
An hour later the whole hunt was at the porch. Nikolai, with a stern and serious look, showing that there was no time to deal with trifles now, walked past Natasha and Petya, who were telling him something. He inspected all parts of the hunt, sent the pack and hunters ahead to the race, sat down on his red bottom and, whistling the dogs of his pack, set off through the threshing floor into the field leading to the Otradnensky order. The old count's horse, a game-colored mering called Bethlyanka, was led by the count's stirrup; he himself had to go straight in the droshky to the hole left for him.
Of all the hounds, 54 dogs were bred, under which 6 people went out as handlers and catchers. In addition to the masters, there were 8 greyhound hunters, who were followed by more than 40 greyhounds, so that with the master's packs about 130 dogs and 20 horse hunters went out into the field.
Each dog knew its owner and name. Each hunter knew his business, place and purpose. As soon as they left the fence, everyone, without noise or conversation, stretched out evenly and calmly along the road and field leading to the Otradnensky forest.
The horses walked across the field as if walking on a fur carpet, occasionally splashing through puddles as they crossed the roads. The foggy sky continued to descend imperceptibly and evenly to the ground; the air was quiet, warm, soundless. Occasionally one could hear the whistling of a hunter, the snoring of a horse, the blow of an arapnik, or the yelp of a dog that was not moving in its place.