Alexander Belyaev

23 hrs. 22 min.

Language Russian

Author Zeev Bar-Sella

Narrator Mikhail Roslyakov

Description

Very little is known about Alexander Belyaev, who bore the title “classic of Soviet science fiction,” and modern biographical notes about him are full of inaccuracies. He was a graduate of a theological seminary and a law lyceum; he worked in court, performed in the theater, was a journalist, and even served as a police officer. After a run of tragic circumstances, including a serious illness that at times kept him in bed, Belyaev’s life changed: a science-fiction writer appeared—one who could keenly feel the modern world and possessed the gift of scientific foreknowledge. Broad recognition came to him posthumously—Belyaev died of starvation in Pushkin, occupied by the Nazis.

The author of this book, the well-known Israeli literary scholar Zeev Bar-Sella, reconstructs Alexander Romanovich Belyaev’s biography using archival documents, recollections of contemporaries, the writer’s own works, and critiques of his writing—placing it in the context of the complex era in which he lived and worked.

Contents:

The Tale of Belyaev
Chapter One. The Beginning
Chapter Two. A Step Aside
Chapter Three. The Lyceum
Chapter Four. Riemann’s Space
Chapter Five. The Father
Chapter Six. Murky Times
Chapter Seven. Five Years of Apprenticeship
Chapter Eight. Russian America
Chapter Nine. The Birth of the Fantasist
Chapter Ten. A Night Under Christmas
Chapter Eleven. Running
Chapter Twelve. New Moscow
Chapter Thirteen. Three Heads of Professor Dowell
Chapter Fourteen. At the Bottom
Chapter Fifteen. The Triumph of Will
Chapter Sixteen. Seven Colors of Radio
Chapter Seventeen. A Man Overboard
Chapter Eighteen. An Air Pit
Chapter Nineteen. Golden Mountains
Chapter Twenty. A Polar Dream
Chapter Twenty-One. A Leap into Nothingness
Chapter Twenty-Two. KEЦ
Chapter Twenty-Three. Fear
Chapter Twenty-Four. Air Routes
Chapter Twenty-Five. War
Chapter Twenty-Six. Death
Chapter Twenty-Seven. Posthumous Life
Immortality
Appendices
Appendix 1
Appendix 2 A. R. Belyaev in Contemporary Criticism
Key Dates of A. R. Belyaev’s Life and Work
Literature