The Modern Novel

Biography

Yuz Aleshkovsky was born in Krasnoyarsk in 1929. His father was an army oficer. The family moved back to Moscow, where they were from, three months later. He changed schools several times and was even expelled. The family were finally evacuated to Omsk. during world War II. He served in the navy when called up in 1947 but was sentenced to four years imprisonment for hijacking the car of the secretary of the Primorsky Regional Committee. He then worked on a construction site, before returning to Moscow.

At this time, he started writing, first songs (which he performed) and then children’s books. He also wrote screenplays for cinema and television. However, because of the difficulty of publishing his works in the Soviet Union, he and his wife emigrated to the United States via Austria. He now lives in Middletown, Connecticut.

Other links

Yuz Aleshkovsky
Yuz Aleshkovsky
Dispatches from Russia: Yuz Aleshkovsky
Aleshkovsky’s Words of Wisdom Laced With Swears
His home page (in Russian)
Yuz Aleshkovsky (in Russian)