Background
Colliander was born in Saint St. Petersburg, the son of Colonel Sigfried Joakim Colliander and his wife Dagmar Ilmatar, née von Schoultz.
Colliander was born in Saint St. Petersburg, the son of Colonel Sigfried Joakim Colliander and his wife Dagmar Ilmatar, née von Schoultz.
Colliander received an artistic education. Beginning in the 1930s, Colliander published a number of novels and short stories that made him famous. His books were written under the strong influence of Dostoyevsky"s frequent themes of guilt and searching for faith in the modern world.
His novels Crusade (Korståget), Mercy (Förbarma dig) and others were translated into foreign languages.
His most famous book, The Way of the Ascetics (Asketernas väg), was first published in Swedish. The English translation, The Way of the Ascetics, went through several editions.
He also wrote a memoir of life in Tsarist Russia and Finland in a pre-war book about Ilya Repin. He died on May 21, 1989 and is buried at the Orthodox cemetery in Helsinki near Lapinlahti.