Background
Siniavskii, Andrei was born in 1925 in Moscow.
Siniavskii, Andrei was born in 1925 in Moscow.
Graduated from Moscow University, 1952.
Became known as a critic, writing for a number of leading magazines. Together with his friend and collaborator Iulii Daniel, sent and published abroad (under the pseudonyms Abram Terts and Nikolai Arzhak) several satirical works, under the title Fantasticheskii Mir Abrama Tertsa, and later Sud Idet and Liubimov’. The Abram Terts stories mystified the literary world in the East and West for a number of years.
Together with Daniel, he was the first famous literary dissident. Eventually exposed, and in Sep. 1965, became involved in a trial which created an international sensation, and which received welldocumented coverage in the Western press.
Became a world celebrity. Convicted for slandering the Soviet system and sentenced to 7 years hard labour. Protests against the trial marked the beginning of the modern dissident movement in the USSR. After serving his term, emigrated, 1973.
His literary criticism of Russian classical literature, Progulki s Pushkinym and V Teni Gogolia, published in the West, received a mixed reception. His works have been translated into many languages. Founded and edits his own magazine Sintaksis, together with his wife Maria Rozanova.
Lives in a suburb of Paris. Professor at the Sorbonne.