Alexander Borisovich
Chakovsky
1913-1994
Alexander Borisovich Chakovsky was a Soviet writer, critic, playwright, journalist, and war correspondent. He was the editor-in-chief of the magazines the Foreign Literature (1955-1963) and the Literaturnaya Gazeta (1962-1988). He was also a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1986 to 1990. He was awarded the Hero of Socialist Labor in 1973, the Stalin Prize in 1950, the Lenin Prize in 1978, and the USSR State Prize in 1983. He was born on August 13 (26), 1913, in St. Petersburg in a wealthy family. His grandfather, Matvey Abramovich Chakovsky, was a merchant and landowner in Samara. His father, Boris Matveyevich, was a renowned venereologist. His uncle, Ilya Matveyevich, was a lawyer in St. Petersburg. Chakovsky spent his childhood and adolescence in Samara, where he finished school in 1930. Here, he also began engaging in social activities. As a high school student, he travelled to the countryside to help eradicate illiteracy. He worked as an assistant to the commissioner for collectivization and edited a wall newspaper. At the age of 17, he moved to Moscow to pursue an independent life. There, he studied at the evening department of Law Institute and graduated from Gorky Literature Institute in 1938. Then he continued his studies at the Moscow Institute of Philosophy and Literature and also, he worked for a literary and artistic journal called October. He made his debut as a literary critic in 1937 and later started publishing as a playwright. In 1939, he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) as a candidate, and in 1941 became a full member. The same year, he joined the Writers’ Union. In 1941 Chakovsky was appointed as the head of the screenwriting department at Mosfilm, where he edited the first issues of the Combat Film Collection. From 1942 to 1945, he served as a correspondent for the Volkhov Front newspapers the Znamya Pobedy and the Frontovaya Pravda, holding the rank of major in administrative service. He was demobilized in 1945. From 1955 to 1988, Chakovsky served as editor-in-chief of the Foreign Literature magazine and as editor-in-Chief of the Literaturnaya Gazeta. In 1973 Chakovsky signed a letter from a group of Soviet writers regarding Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov, and published an article condemning dissidents such as Ginzburg, Galanskov, Dobrovolsky, and Lashkova. From 1971 to 1986, Chakovsky served as a candidate member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and from 1986 to 1990, he was a full member of the committee. Additionally, he held the position of secretary of the Writers’ Union of the USSR from 1962 to 1991, and served as a deputy in the Supreme Soviet of the USSR for the 7th and 9th convocations from 1966 to 1989. Over the course of his career, Chakovsky led the Soviet Committee for Solidarity with Peoples of Latin America.
Address: Moscow, Tverskaya St., 8, building 1
