Biography
Venyamin Kaverin was born Venyamin Aleksandrovich Silber on April 19, 1902, in Pskov, Russia. He was the youngest of six children. His father, named Aleksandr Silber, was a musician and conductor of a military band. Young Kaverin studied at the Pskov Gymnasium. There he began to write poetry. In 1919 he moved to Moscow and entered the Department of History and Philology at Moscow University. Writer Yuri Tynyanov was his brother-in-law. Upon Tynyanov's advice Kaverin transfered to St. Petersburg University to study languages and literature. His story 'Odinnadtsataya Aksioma' (The Eleventh Axiom) won a literary prize and the attention of Maxim Gorky.
In 1921 Kaverin joined the literary group Serapionovy Bratya (The Serapion Brothers). The group was initiated by Yevgeni Zamyatin who professed that "true literature can be created only by madmen, hermits, heretics, dreamers, rebels, and skeptics" at his literary seminars with aspiring writers. They took their name from the story of E.T.A.Hoffmann titled 'Serapion Brothers', about artistic freedom. The group included Mikhail Zoshchenko, Lev Lunts, Viktor Shklovskiy, Nikolai Tikhonov, Mikhail Slonimsky, Vsevolod Ivanov, and Konstantin Fedin. The group was under patronage of critic and writer Yuri Tynyanov. They also attended seminars of Korney Ivanovich Chukovskiy. They lived in the famous artistic community known as 'Dom Iskusstv' (House of Arts) in a former aristocratic palace on the Nevsky Prospect in St. Petersburg. The writers of the group were non-conformists and were in opposition to the official Soviet literature. Their leader Yevgeni Zamyatin fearlessly criticized Soviet policy of "Red Terror" and intimidation of intellectuals under the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin.
Kaverin took his pseudonym from the name of Russian adventurer Petr Kaverin, who was a friend of poet Aleksandr Pushkin. From 1923-1929 Kaverin carried post-graduate studies in history and literature. In 1929 he earned his Doctorate in history of Russian journalism with his dissertation titled 'Baron Brambeus, History of Osip Senkovsky'. His first big novel titled 'Skandalist' (The Troublemaker 1928) is a portrayal of the older generation of academics in Leningrad, with their old-fashioned and rigid attitudes to the new reality. His second novel 'Khudoshnik Neizvesten' (Artist Unknown 1931) revolves around a philosophical discussion between an engineer and an artist, and deals with the drama of cultural degradation and struggles of Russian avant-garde art in the late 1920's. His third novel 'Ispolnenie Zhelahii' (Wish Fulfillment 1936) compares two different students at Leningrad University who are dealing with manipulations and seduction by evil-doers, but manage to avoid more traps after a painful experience. It was made into an eponymous film starring Evgeniy Lebedev and Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy.
His best known novel is 'Dva Kapitana' (Two Captains). The first volume was published in 1939. During the Second World War Kaverin served in the Nothern Navy Fleet, and gathered more literary material, then was evacuated in the city of Yaroslavl, Russia. There he completed the second volume of 'Dva Kapitana' (Two Captains 1944). The book recounts the adventures of Russian Polar expeditions in the times before and after the Russian Revolution. It was adapted for film in 1955, and a popular TV-series in 1976. Kaverin's elder brother, named Lev Zilber, was a leading immunologist, who was arrested three times and exiled in Gulag prison-camps. Kaverin used his brother's experiences as a literary material. From 1949-1956 Kaverin wrote a trilogy about micro-biologists titled 'Otkrytaya Kniga' (The Open Book 1956). It became a popular book and was made into an eponymous film by director Vladimir Fetin. A 1977 re-make by director Viktor Titov was a popular TV-series starring Georgiy Taratorkin and Elena Solovey.
Kaverin wrote one of his best books titled 'Pered Zerkalom' (Before the Mirror 1972) at the age of 70. It became a revelation of his deepest thoughts about history, love, and the meaning of human existence. At the same time Kaverin gave the Soviet intellectual elite a good shake with publication of his thought-provoking trilogy of memoirs 'Osveshchennye Okna' (Lighted Windows 1970-1976). His portrait of the Soviet literary milieu of the 1920s contained peculiar biographical details and humorous characteristics of many famous literary figures. Kaverin's account of Soviet policies in literature played an important role in the liberation of the collective consciousness after decades of repressions. Published during the rule of Leonid Brezhnev, Kaverin's brilliant memoirs sparked public interest in history, literature, and art.
Veniamin Kaverin was awarded the State Prize of the USSR and received numerous decorations and honors. He was an editor of the two-volume anthology 'Literaturnaya Moskva' (The Literary Moscow 1956). In the 1966 he co-signed the letter to the Communist Party Congress requesting the release of writers Andrey Sinyavskiy and Yuri Daniel. Kaverin opposed Konstantin Fedin and defended Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and other Soviet dissidents. He worked to help literary rehabilitation of Mikhail A. Bulgakov and other banned writers. Veniamin Kaverin was a member of the board of the Soviet Writers' Union. He died on May 2, 1989, in Moscow.
In 2002 The Moscow News commented on his centenary: "Kaverin showed that even under the worst of conditions it is possible to retain one's human qualities and decency. His example is a reproach to so many other Soviet writers who sold their souls to the regime and committed reprehensible public acts." His books were translated in many languages and sold millions of copies around the world.
