Vadim Mikhailovich
Kozhevnikov
1909-1984
Vadim Kozhevnikov was a Soviet writer, journalist, and war correspondent. He was a laureate of the USSR State Prize in 1971 and the Hero of Socialist Labour in 1974. From 1943, he was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He was born in the village of Togur in the Narym Region of the Tomsk Governorate, in the family of exiled Social Democrats. Kozhevnikov lived with his parents from 1910 to 1925 in Tomsk, then moved to Moscow in 1925 and entered at the Moscow State University’s literary department of the Ethnographic Faculty, graduating in 1933. In 1929, his debut story “Port” appeared in the magazine Growth. From 1933, Kozhevnikov worked for the Komsomolskaya Pravda and other publications such as the Ogonyok and the Smena. His first collection of works, Night Talks, was published in 1939. In 1940, Kozhevnikov joined the USSR Writers Union. During the Great Patriotic War, the author served as a war correspondent for the newspaper “Krasnoarmeyskaya Pravda” on the Western Front. At first, he held the rank of Quartermaster 2nd Class, and later he became a Major. From 1943 onwards, he covered events for the Pravda on the 1st Ukrainian Front, and he was present during the capture of Berlin. In the post-war years, from 1947 to 1948, the author headed the Literature and Art Department at the Pravda. He continued to serve as Editor-in-Chief of the Literary Magazine Znamya from 1949 until his death. Additionally, since 1967 he was a member of the USSR Writers’ Union. And since 1970, Kozhevnikov was a member of the Union of Writers of the RSFSR. He was also a delegate to the XXVI Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in 1981 and a deputy in the Council of the Supreme Council of the USSR for the 7th and 11th convocations, representing the Samarkand region. Kozhevnikov’s works include short stories, novellas, and novels, among which the most famous are the novels “Meet Baluyev” and “Shield and Sword”, both published in 1965 and dedicated to the activities of Soviet intelligence agents in the German-occupied territories. Films based on these books were also produced. Among Kozhevnikov’s other novels, “The Great Call” and “Formidable Weapon” stand out as well as the short story “March-April”, which was the basis for a film adaptation. He also co-authored the play “The Fate of Reginald Davis”. Special recognition was given to Kozhevnikov for his works created during World War II, which remain his most successful literary legacy. In 2022, a memorial plaque was unveiled in his honour. Kozhevnikov was installed on the building of Literary Institute in Moscow.
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