Writer Vladimir Kunin: biography, personal life, photo

Vladimir Kunin is a writer, of whom there are a lot of contradictory information about the past. Many incorrect facts about his life were the result of journalistic errors, but some he himself created. Archives of the NKVD are still inaccessible to a wide audience. But it was they who were referred to by the Russian writer and playwright Vladimir Kunin, whose biography, even after his death, worries and intrigues journalists and critics.

Biographical information

In 1927, in Leningrad, in the family of a military pilot and film director, one of the most scandalous authors of the post-Soviet era was born - Vladimir Kunin. The real name of the writer is Feinberg. As a pseudonym, he, after many years, took the name of his mother, who by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War was no longer alive.

About the teenage years of the writer, who fell in the war time, there is a lot left unsaid. But there is still an official version, according to which the famous screenwriter before 1946 studied at the Military Aviation School. Then for five years he was a navigator on a dive bomber and only in 1951 demobilized.

The autobiographical myth

Kunin did not like to give interviews, but during his life he talked a lot with journalists. In recent years, he increasingly misled media workers. Citing facts from his childhood, he often accidentally or intentionally confused the year.

Being already a mature writer, he was known in literary circles as a man creating a heroic autobiography. To the fiction in his life is attributed, above all, to childhood and adolescence. According to him, which he later refuted, the first years of the war he spent in the secret camp of the NKVD.

In adolescence, the future writer was left to himself: his mother died, his father was at the front. These circumstances led him to a gang of juvenile offenders, and then to prison, where NKVD officers once had a long conversation with him. After a difficult conversation, the fourteen-year-old criminal had no choice but to join the school of saboteurs. "Cadets" had to undergo military training, then participate in special operations. At least, so said himself Vladimir Kunin, although in the year when, according to his version, these events occurred, he was already sixteen.

A family

One of the most mysterious figures in the Russian culture was undoubtedly the writer Vladimir Kunin. The personal life of this man has never been open to outsiders. In 1990, he and his wife Irina emigrated to Germany. He was forced to go abroad for permanent residence by his wife's illness. It was the only way to save her life. In St. Petersburg, their son remained.

Fame and glory

More than thirty of his books were screened. His works are now read all over the world in seventeen languages. But the famous writer Vladimir Vladimirovich Kunin became with the release of the story "The Chronicle of the Dive Bomber." It happened in 1967.

To this day, the screen version of this book is considered one of the best Soviet films about the war. Along with this work, twelve short stories and one more story were also published in one collection.

"Interdevochka"

After the "Chronicle" from the pen of Kunin came a few works on the military theme. However, the next breakthrough in literature and cinema was not just another story about military pilots. Vladimir Kunin received loud notoriety with the release of the first Soviet film about the life of currency prostitutes. Collecting materials for the script of this film, the writer accompanied police officers who were leaving to detain the girls of easy virtue. Accumulating information about the world of prostitution, he tried to establish friendly contacts with prototypes of his heroines. It was possible to the writer with difficulty. He was increasingly taken for a KGB officer. But when the story saw the light, representatives of the ancient profession literally showered the author with penetrating letters.

The girls liked the book, and the film - even more. Only the script writer was dissatisfied with the film. In his opinion, this material did not need to make a film of state scale. This story, like many other of his works, is just one of the sad life stories.

The story "Bastards"

The film, shot on this work, did not leave anyone indifferent. The actions take place in 1943. At the center of the narrative is an officer who is released from detention for a task of special importance. He will be led by a detachment of juvenile offenders. The sabotage group goes to the mountains, where it must destroy the German fuel warehouse.

After writing the script, the author was able to convince the director and state cultural workers that the work is not only based on real events, but also on his own biography. Both the novel and the film aroused great resonance and disputes among historians about the reliability of the data provided by the writer Vladimir Kunin. His biography will remain a mystery with seven seals. The director of the picture will later say that he completely believes in the historical truthfulness of the script. But even now he is sure that Kunin never participated in any special operations.

"Bastards": truth or fiction?

After the film was shown a fierce dispute: was there such a sabotage unit, which Vladimir Kunin testifies? Photos and documents of wartime, which have employees of the archives, allowed to come to a completely unexpected conclusion. The sensational scenario, in fact, is not devoid of a historical basis. Special schools for criminal children existed, but under the leadership of the German army. As a part of the NKVD children's sabotage institutions never existed.

Emigration

One of the most popular writers of the 1990s repeatedly said that he was not forced to leave Russia by political views. He was never a dissident. Although he arrived in Germany as a contingent refugee. Kunin maintained friendly relations with one of the German publishers. This friendship allowed the author of "Interdevochki" to work fruitfully and abroad.

Living in Germany, he did not stop writing. He often visited St. Petersburg, met with colleagues and readers. In these years he published his last collection, which included novels "Ivanov and Rabinovich", "Interdevochka" and others. In addition, Kunin also wrote the novel "The Russians on Marienplatz." All his works of these years are devoted to the life of Russian emigrants in Europe.

Criticism

Military prose Kunin was perceived as literary critics, and readers are positive. The works created during the years of emigration aroused the readers' burning interest, but not always approval. The story "Interdevochka" caused indignation among the authorities. Saying aloud about the existence of such a social evil as prostitution was not accepted.

But not a single work of Kunin caused so much controversy and indignation as his last war story "Bastards". In order to refute the facts that formed the basis of this literary work, many negative reviews were written. The authors were employees of the FSB, cultural figures and famous writers. Particular indignation was caused by the imaginary "autobiography" of the story. The author of the "Bastards" was accused of lashing and malicious slander against a Soviet soldier.

Last years

In Munich, the writer lived more than twenty years. According to friends and friends of the writer, he did not want to return to his homeland until the last days. The reason for the reluctance to go to Russia was, first of all, in the scandal caused by the film "Bastards". At the awarding of the "MTV Russia" award, the famous Russian director Vladimir Menshikov refused to take the prize, calling the film a mean and dishonorable country.

Vladimir Kunin died after a long illness. He was 84 years old. His works have forever become part of Soviet and Russian culture.