Biography
Aleksandr Shtein (sometimes spelled Shteyn) was born Aleksandr Petrovich Rubinstein, in 1906, in Samarkand, Russian Empire (now Samarkand, Uzbekistan). His father, Petr Rubinstein, was a Russian Jew who became Lutheran to marry his mother. As a teenager, Aleksandr Shtein became involved in Soviet Special Forces in Central Asia stationed in Bukhara. There he made his writing debut as a criminal reporter for a Soviet Military newspaper.
In 1923 he came to St. Petersburg (then Petrograd) and studied literature at St. Petersburg University. Two years later, he dropped out of university, becoming a professional journalist and writer. In the 30s he was editor of a Leningrad magazine "Iskusstvo i Zhizn" (aka.. Art and Life) where he also published his short stories and plays. In 1936 he wrote a screenplay for Lenfilm studios, and made his film debut as a writer for Men of the Sea (1938) (aka.. Men of the Sea (1938) by director Aleksandr Faintsimmer. At that time, Shtein joined the Leningrad cultural milieu; he lived in the famous community of intellectuals at No.7, Rubinstein street in Leningrad (St. Petersburg). There his friends and neighbors were such luminaries as Olga Berggolts, Yuri Libedinsky, Wolf Erlich, Boris Chirkov, Mikhail Chumandrin, Ida Nappelbaum, and other cultural figures of Leningrad - St. Petersburg.
During WWI, in 1941-1945, Aleksandr Shtein served in the Red Navy as political commissar at the battleship "October Revolution" in the Baltic Fleet. He was stationed in Kronstadt during the siege of Leningrad in the Second World War. He was decorated for his courage in the war, and was discharged with honors in the rank of Navy Captain. After the war, he continued his writing career. He wrote a book "Zakon chesti" (aka.. The law of honor) in 1948.
Aleksandr Shtein was awarded the Stalin's Prize twice (1949 and 1951), and received numerous decorations from the Soviet state. His best known works, "Okean" and "Admiral Ushakov" were adapted to film and stage in the Soviet Union. Aleksandr Shtein died on October 5, 1993, in St. Petersburg, Russia.
