I Will Catch Up with You in Heaven

Writer Радий Погодин experienced a great deal in his life—he nearly died in besieged Leningrad, fought in the war (awarded orders—two Orders of Glory and two Orders of the Red Star), and in the battles reached Berlin (his impressions from the blockade and the war formed the basis of the autobiographical novel “Я догоню вас на небесах,” one of the best books in our literature about war and the Siege of Leningrad). After the war, he was branded an “enemy of the people” and served his sentence in a camp under the notorious Article of the Criminal Code… Such was his “rich” life experience. Погодин entered literature in the 1950s. He began with books for children: “Кирпичные острова,” “Рассказы о веселых людях и хорошей погоде,” “Трень-брень”… Later, in the 1970s and 1980s, in his works—even in the children’s ones—the theme of war increasingly and more distinctly came to the forefront, and for a writer with his biography this is entirely understandable: the past returns, already in books. But what is important: despite everything he lived through, Погодин’s books are filled with warm light and kindness. He also knows how to choose and arrange words so that a miracle happens—an ordinary miracle, when the words in a book begin to play, glow with all the colors of life, and respond in the reader’s heart.

In addition to the novel “Я догоню вас на небесах,” one of the peaks of the writer’s work, this volume fully includes a cycle of semi-realistic—half-fantastical novellas and stories about Василий Егоров, an artist and a soldier (“Река”), along with other of the finest examples of Погодин’s prose.

In August 2025, the centenary of the master’s birth was commemorated, and this book is our tribute and remembrance of a wonderful writer, artist, and person.