 Yury Markovich Nagibin (1920 - 1994)
Russian Soviet writer and journalist.
He was born April 3, in Moscow, near Chistye Prudy, in the family of a clerk. When his parents divorced, Nagibin stayed with his mother to whom "he owed basic human and creative qualities". His stepfather, a writer, was his literary tutor.
Nagibin did not find his way in life easily. In the youth he played football quite well, even he was predicted to have a great future in this field. His stepfather recommended him to write stories, because Nagibin had a talent to transfer his impressions easily and with humour. The future writer tried to write stories, without much success, but writing process
captivated the young man.
However after finishing school Nagibin became a student of medical institute (fulfilling his mother's wish), but he was a student only until the end of the first session. At this time in State Institute of
Cinematography there was admission on script faculty where Nagibin became a student. For him the study was easy, he had a plenty of time to write stories,
sketches, reviews and articles. In 1940 his first story was published.
But Nagibin could not graduate - the war began. He went to the front. His knowledge of German language decided his destiny - Nagibin was sent to VII
Department of Political Directorate (counter-propaganda) of the Volkhov Front where he carried out his direct duties and had to fight with the weapon in hands and escape an encirclement. All
impressions of front life he later included in his military stories.
In November 1942 Nagibin was contused, returned to Moscow and until the end of war he worked in the newspaper "Trud". As a correspondent he visited
Stalingrad, Leningrad, he was there when Minsk, Vilnius and Kaunas were liberated.
In 1943 Nagibin published collection "Man From the Front". He was affiliated in the Writers Union. His correspondent impressions were included in the stories which made collections "Big Heart", "Two Forces" etc.
After the war Nagibin was a journalist, but also he continued to write: stories "Tobacco Pipe", "Winter Oak" were very popular.
The middle of the 1950s was very fruitful for Nagibin: he published collections of stories "Man And Road", "Chistye Prudy", "Far And Close", "In the Early Spring".
One day Nagibin invited by a friend went duck hunting to Meshera and the Meshera theme entered his life and work. He wrote collections of stories: "Chase. The Meshera Tales" (1963) and "Green Bird With a Red Head" (1966).
During the 1980s Nagibin wrote a cycle of stories about "the great" (Ghete, Bach, Tyutchev, Leskov etc.).
Large part of his work was occupied by cinema, Nagibin wrote scripts of such known films as "Chairman", "Director", "Red Tent ", "Chaikovsky", "Night Visitor" etc. He also worked for TV: he made a number of features about life and work of Lermontov, Aksakov, I.Annensky and
A.Golubkina.
Nagibin worked to the end of his life. His autobiographical books "Darkness At The End Of The Tunnel" and "My Gold Mother-In-Law" were
published posthumously.
Nagibin died in April 17, 1994 in Moscow.
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