Tendriakov, Vladimir Fedorovich

Born Dec. 5, 1923, in the village of Makharovskaia, in what is now Verkhovazh’e Raion, Vologda Oblast. Soviet Russian writer. Member of the CPSU since 1948.

Tendriakov graduated from the M. Gorky Institute of Literature in 1951. He began publishing in 1947. A number of his sketches, novellas, and short stories have dealt with acute socioeconomic and moral problems of life in the Soviet countryside. These works include The Fall of Ivan Chuprov (1953), “Bad Weather” (1954), Not Suited (1954; filmed as Someone Else’s Relatives. 1956), Potholes (1956), Tight Knot (1956; filmed as Sasha Sets Out in Life. 1957), “The Mayfly—A Short Life” (1965), “The Demise” (1968), and “Three Sacks of Bad Wheat” (1973; staged at the Leningrad Bolshoi Drama Theater, 1975).

Tendriakov’s best works have been short novellas based on extraordinary or tragic events; examples are Three, Seven, Ace (1960), The Trial (1961; film of the same name, 1962), Short Circuit (1962), and The Windfall (1965). Complex problems of upbringing are posed in the novel After the Fleeting Day (1959) and in the novellas The Miraculous (1958; film of the same name, 1960; staged at the Moscow Sovremennik Theater as Without a Cross. 1963), Springtime Confusion (1973), and The Night After Graduation (1974). Tendriakov’s novel A Rendezvous With Nefertiti (1964) dealt with the postwar moral and aesthetic quest of a young artist who was formerly a frontline soldier. Tendriakov also wrote the science-fiction novella A Century-long Journey (1964) and the plays White Flag (1962, with K. Ikramov) and Accord and Love (1973).

Tendriakov’s works have often evoked polemics among critics and in pedagogic circles. His writings have been translated into many national languages of the USSR and into foreign languages. He has been awarded two orders.