Background
Kuznetsov, Anatolii was born on August 18, 1929 in Kiev.
Kuznetsov, Anatolii was born on August 18, 1929 in Kiev.
During World War II, lived through the German occupation of the Ukraine. Received a national prize for a short story in Pionerskaia Pravda, 1946. Worked on construction sites of hydroelectric stations (Kakhovka, 1952, Irkutsk,1956).
The sincere description of the life of young workers in Prodolzhenie Legendy, 1956, brought him fame in the USSR and abroad. Accepted into the elite Gorkii Literary Institute in Moscow, from which he graduated in 1960. Trusted by the authorities.
Ordered to go to court in France over an unauthorized French edition of his book (he won the case to his own great displeasure, as he confessed later), 1960. Considered one of the brightest hopes of the young generation of Soviet writers at that time. Wrote a sensational novel about the Nazi mass murders of the Jewish population of Kiev, Babii Yar, giving Evtushenko the theme for his famous poem on the same subject.
The novel was heavily censored, which hardened his resolve to leave the Soviet Union. During a trip to London, July 1969, ostensibly to gather material on Lenin’s life in Britain, asked for political asylum, although still at the height of his fame and popularity among young people in the Soviet Union. Did not repeat his literary success in the West, but gained a wide audience in the USSR through his Radio Liberty broadcasts from London, which were marked by style, wit and sincerity.