Natalia Shpanova, the Director of the Archangel Regional
Musuem, has sent us some information about an Exhibit
that they are now having to commemorate the 100th
Anniversary of the birth of famous Russian author
Fyodor Abramov. He was born on 29 February 1920
in the village of Verkola in the Archangel Oblast
(about 60 miles from the City of Archangel).
He came from a peasant background, fought in the Great
Patriotic War in Leningrad, and went on to become a writer
about the difficult lives of the Soviet peasant class in the
Northern Pomor regions (thus criticizing the Soviet
propaganda glorified view of peasant life) .
Natalia says "he was the first writer who described what
happened in a remote northern village in the Soviet period,
actually this is the story of freedom and slavery in the 20th
Century and what happened to those who survived this,
psychologically, economically and culturally."
He died on 14 May 1983, before the Fall of the Soviet Union.
For another take on the legacy of Abramov, see this article from High North News.
