Raiņa bulvāris 19, Centra rajons, Rīga, LV-1586, Latvia
In 1953, Yuri received a bachelor's degree in History from the University of Latvia in Riga.
Gallery of Yuri Druzhnikov
1/1 M. Pirogovskaya Str., Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation
In 1953, Druzhnikov entered Moscow State Pedagogical Institute (present-day Moscow State Pedagogical University), graduating with a Doctor of Philosophy degree in History and Philology in 1955.
1/1 M. Pirogovskaya Str., Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation
In 1953, Druzhnikov entered Moscow State Pedagogical Institute (present-day Moscow State Pedagogical University), graduating with a Doctor of Philosophy degree in History and Philology in 1955.
(This work is the first independent study of the Morozov a...)
This work is the first independent study of the Morozov affair. Yuri Druzhnikov examined documents, visited museums and interviewed everyone, who knew Morozov during his short lifetime. In book after book, he discovered inconsistencies in every fact, from where Morozov was born to how old he was at the time of his death.
The original book was published in Russian in 1987.
Prisoner of Russia: Alexander Pushkin and the Political Uses of Nationalism
(In "Prisoner of Russia", Yuri Druzhnikov analyzes the dis...)
In "Prisoner of Russia", Yuri Druzhnikov analyzes the distortions and misrepresentations of Pushkin's cultural appropriation by focusing on Pushkin's attempts at emigration and his attitudes toward Russia and Western Europe.
This book was originally published in Russian in 1992.
(In this heartfelt collection of stories, life in Russia i...)
In this heartfelt collection of stories, life in Russia is vividly described — both before and after the collapse of Communism — as well as the plight of Russian emigres in the United States in post-communist times. From a tour guide so in love with Pushkin, that she lives with his wooden effigy and a businessman, intent on enjoying his Kaif, to a taxi driver, taking his daughter along with him on his rounds, the characters to be found in this rambunctious volume are both recognizable and bizarre, capable of cowardly corruptions, but also heroic honesties, oppressed and bewildered, but also invigorated by the challenge, that everyday life presents — whatever economic system they live under.
This book was translated into English in 2007.
(This novel is set in Moscow in the late 1960's, at a time...)
This novel is set in Moscow in the late 1960's, at a time, when Khrushchev-era liberalization is being threatened by the return to personality cult and repression, following the Soviet intervention in Czechoslovakia. The editor-in-chief of the Communist Party newspaper collapses with a heart attack outside the Central Committee building. This is partly brought on by the appearance of a samizdat manuscript on his desk, that leads to his anguishing over who left it and what to do with it to avoid falling victim to the malevolence its content is likely to unleash.
The novel was originally published in Russian in 1988.
(This book represents the picaresque story of 96-year-old ...)
This book represents the picaresque story of 96-year-old Lily Bourbon, who marries her way from prostitute to Poet Laureate in the USSR and finds a new life in the United States.
(A moving and ambitious novel, this story concerns an exil...)
A moving and ambitious novel, this story concerns an exiled Soviet musician, who finds himself back in his homeland and drawn to his hometown and the secret of his father’s disappearance during World War II.
The original book was published in Russian in 1998.
Yuri Ilyich Druzhnikov was an American writer, literary historian, journalist and educator. He was one of the most respected contemporary Russian emigre writers. "Angels on the Head of a Pin" and "Informer 001: The Myth of Pavlik Morozov" are among his most notable works.
Background
Yuri Ilyich Druzhnikov was born on April 17, 1933, in Moscow, Soviet Union (present-day Moscow, Russian Federation). He was a son of Ilya Druzhnikov, an artist, and Alida Druzhnikova, an archivist. Yuri was raised around a group of artists and intellectuals, many of whom disappeared during Stalin's Great Terror.
Education
At Druzhnikov's high school graduation in 1951, he was denied the silver medal for "underestimating the role of comrade Stalin in the Russian Civil War", which paved the way for his rejection to every university, to which he applied. Some time later, however, he was accepted to the University of Latvia in Riga, where he received a bachelor's degree in History in 1953. It's worth mentioning, that it was in Latvia, that Yuri became attracted to the stage and later worked as an actor in the Russian Drama Theatre.
In 1953, Druzhnikov came back to his native Moscow, where, the same year, he entered Moscow State Pedagogical Institute (present-day Moscow State Pedagogical University), graduating with a Doctor of Philosophy degree in History and Philology in 1955. During his student years, he supported himself by working as a photographer, journalist and as an internist in a government archive building, where he took it upon himself to track down the labor records of rehabilitated prisoners, which were used to determine pensions.
From 1964 to 1971, Druzhnikov taught Russian literature for two years in Kazakhstan, served as the headmaster of a high school and then returned to Moscow to work as a book editor, a traveling correspondent and an editor for the newspaper, entitled "The Moscovsky Komsomolets". In 1971, he was accepted to the Writer's Union of the USSR. In 1977, Druzhnikov was officially removed from the Union and declared "a traitor to the motherland" for participating in the Samizdat underground publishing movement and for other "illegal" activities.
As for Yuri's literary career, he began writing in the 1960's. In 1971, he published his first book of prose, the anthology "Never Ever Goes My Way". In 1974, Druzhnikov published two books about adolescent upbringing, "Boredom Prohibited" and "Never Stop Asking Questions, Boys". Meanwhile, magazine editors and book publishers rejected his prose. Alexander Tvardovsky, the editor of "Novy Mir", decided to publish two of Druzhnikov's shorter novels, "Valedictory" and "February the Thirtieth", but later Tvardovsky changed his mind, giving Druzhnikov the excuse, that the magazine's quota for social criticism, allowed by the authorities, was filled by Alexander Solzhenitsyn's short stories and that no room was left for Druzhnikov's writing.
Druzhnikov's literary search never followed the official Soviet lines on literature. While investigating the role of ideology in Soviet literature and culture, Druzhnikov touched upon a number of politically controversial topics, which led to an abrupt halt of his official literary activity. In 1976, Druzhnikov's first and last novel, "Wait till Sweet Sixteen", was published in the USSR. To be more accurate, half of the novel was published with the censor-substituted title "To Sacrifice This Very Bird", a biblical passage title.
From the 1980's till the end of 1991, Yuri's name was removed from all publications in the Soviet Union. It also was in the 1980's, that the writer became heavily involved in the Samizdat movement. He was forwarding the works of forbidden authors to Western publishers, organizing an underground workshop for young writers, and later jointly with the film star, Savely Kramarov, establishing the underground theatre "DK" (Druzhnikov-Kramarov), which was promptly burnt down in 1991 by the KGB (Committee for State Security). At the same time, Yuri tried to found an independent writer's union and a private publishing company "The Golden Cockerel". For his efforts, Druzhnikov often received threats and underwent interrogation by the authorities. In 1985, KGB (Committee for State Security) wanted to send him to a prison camp or put away in a psychiatric ward for the insane. However, thanks to the extensive efforts and protests of Western writers, such as Bernard Malamud, Kurt Vonnegut, Arthur Miller, Elie Wiesel, Western human rights organizations, the intervention of the United States Congress and his honorary membership in the International PEN-Club, Druzhnikov was saved from arrest.
"Informer 001: The Myth of Pavlik Morozov", the book, secretly written and researched during the years of 1980 through 1984 in Moscow, became a widely popular work in the underground Samizdat press and later brought Druzhnikov popularity. This work was the first independent research, investigating what the Soviets called "the murder of the century", the death of a pioneer-hero, who later became a tragic symbol of Soviet ideology. In order to write this book, Yuri spoke with the remaining witnesses, including Pavlik's brother, who was accused of espionage and sent to labor camp for ten years, his classmates, fellow villagers, participants in Morozov's murder trial, Chekists and even managed to find Morozov's mother.
Druzhnikov developed his own style of literary analysis, following the traditions, set by the Russian authors, such as Yuri Tynianov and Andrei Siniavsky. In his research novel and psychobiography "Prisoner of Russia: Alexander Pushkin and Political Uses of Nationalism", Druzhnikov became the first author to examine Pushkin's motivations and efforts to escape Russia, first in the guise of a diplomat to Europe and later outright escape attempts from the cities of Kishinev, Odessa, Mikhailovskoye and Arzrum. "Prisoner of Russia" led to a new understanding of Pushkin's relationship to the West, his motivations as a poet and reinterpretations of several Pushkin's works. Besides all Yuri's works, mentioned above, he also wrote such books, as "Contemporary Russian Myths: A Skeptical View of the Literary Past", "Angels on the Head of a Pin", "Passport to Yesterday", "Madonna from Russia" and many others.
It was in 1987, that Yuri organized the Moscow exhibition "The Ten Years of a Non-Writer", after which he was banished from the USSR. The same year, in 1987, he emigrated to Austria, living for a short while in Vienna, and then, in 1988, he made his way to the United States, where he began to teach writing courses at the University of Texas at Austin, worked for Radio Liberty in New York and eventually, in 1989, was appointed a Professor of Russian Literature at the University of California, Davis. It was in 1993, that Druzhnikov starred in the film "Prisoner of time".
Yuri's last novel, "The First Day of the Rest of My Life", was published just a month before his death in both Russian and Italian.