Andrey Rubanov is a prose writer and screenwriter, author of the novels “Plant them, and they’ll grow,” “Chlorophilia,” “Get ready for war,” “Finist—bright falcon,” “The Man from Red Wood,” and the short-story collections “Shameful Feats” and “Harsh and Grim.” Winner of the “National Bestseller” and “Yasnaya Polyana” prizes and a finalist of the “Big Book” award.
This book is historical nonfiction. The biography of Avvakum Petrov (1620–1682), one of the first Russian writers, is written from today’s perspective—for modern readers. A commentary on Avvakum’s fate, his tragedy, and his victory. From the beginning of the events described to the end—400 years of Russian and world history. An utterly partial, disputable, subjective, provocative, direct, personal view by Andrey Rubanov: “Even more we’ll wander.” But where to find the strength for this?
Our strength comes from—our parents, grandfathers and great-grandfathers, from our history, from our frosts and ice, from our richest language, from Faith, Hope, and Love, and from their mother Sofia, from our dream of justice and our habit of injustice, from our mischief, from our laughter, from baptismal ice-holes, from the mad and greatest socialist experiment, from military victories and from Lubyanka shootings, from Beria’s atomic bomb and Sakharov’s hydrogen bomb, from Korolyov’s rockets and Gagarin’s desperate cry—everywhere we learned to draw strength to live on, not only to master it ourselves, but also to pass it on to our children.