Aksenov, Vasiliĭ, 1932-2009.

Born in 1932, Vassily Pavlovich Aksyonov was a prominent Russian novelist who spent much of his later career writing and teaching in the Washington, DC area. Aksyonov was born in the Russian city of Kazan and grew up under Stalin's rule. Askyonov's parents, although devoted communists, were accused of being Trotskyites and sent to gulags when he was still a child. Aksyonov was subsequently raised in an orphanage for "children of enemies of the state" before moving in with his aunt and uncle, who tried to keep the truth of his parents' disappearance a secret. He spent much of his youth listening to jazz and reading American novels, which would influence his work as much as the disenchantment and paranoia of life under Stalinism.