Students

14 hrs. 44 min.

Romance & Prose

Author Yury Trifonov

Narrator Vyacheslav Gerasimov

Description

Even at school, Yuri Trifonov became interested in literature. He was editor of classroom newspapers, wrote poems and stories. In 1942–1945 he worked at an aircraft plant—first as a mechanic, then as a shop dispatcher. There he joined the Komsomol (VLKSM). In spring–autumn 1945 he edited the plant newspaper. In 1944–1949 he studied at the A. M. Gorky Literary Institute. Throughout his study years he attended seminars of K. A. Fedin, and published stories in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets.” In 1948 two stories by the young writer were published—“Familiar Places” (in the magazine “Molodoy Kolkhoznik”) and “In the Steppe” (in the almanac “Molodaya Gvardiya,” no. 2). His diploma work—an essay/paper in the manner of traditional socialist realism, the novella “Students” (1950), published in the leading Soviet literary journal “Novy Mir,” awarded the Stalin Prize (third degree) and immediately brought the author wide fame—was dedicated to the young post-war generation. However, literally half a year after the debut’s success, Trifonov was almost expelled from the institute because he did not include in his questionnaire the fact that his father had been arrested. Later, the author himself spoke coldly of his first book, though he never refused it.