Viktor Astafiev (1924-2001)

Creator notes

ENG: Viktor Petrovich Astafiev was a Soviet and Russian writer, essayist, playwright, and screenwriter. Viktor Astafiev was born on May 1, 1924, in the village of Ovsyanka, Yeniseisk Governorate, RSFSR, USSR (now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia). Unfortunately, a few years after Viktor's birth, his father, Peter Astafiev, was arrested and imprisoned for sabotage. In 1931, Viktor's mother, Lidia, was traveling by boat on the Yenisei River to visit her husband in prison, but the boat capsized, and Lidia drowned. While his father was still in prison, Viktor lived with his grandparents. After Peter Astafiev was released from prison, he remarried and took Viktor to live with him in the city of Igarka. Sadly, Peter fell ill and was hospitalized, and Viktor's stepmother and other relatives turned their backs on him, forcing him to live on the streets and in abandoned buildings until he was taken to an orphanage. In 1942, Viktor went to the front lines during World War II, where he was concussed in April 1945. After the war, Viktor served in the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR in Lviv, Western Ukraine. In the same year, 1945, Viktor Astafiev was demobilized and mov