A Man Survives

by Vladimir Maksimov

Text: English, Russian (translation)

Genres: Russia, Classics

106 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Born Lev Samsonov, he started writing poetry under the name of Vladimir Maximov. As a dissident, Maximov was twice forcibly admitted to psychiatric hospitals by the KGB. His case attracted international attention and in February 1974 Maximov was forced into political exile and stripped of his Soviet citizenship by Leonid Brezhnev's literary authorities, creating an international scandal.

Maximov lived in Paris from then until his death in 1995.

Reviews

[Vit Babenco · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Man Survives is a sad story of an outlaw… A castaway rejected by society…

My eyelids feel glued down, I have difficulty opening them: brilliant, cutting light is piercing my eyeballs. Circles – blue, green, and red – floating about, multiplying.

He is in the hospital… He is surrounded by kind people… He was thrown away by the mean system… When still a boy of fourteen, after his father was arrested, he ran away from home…

Three men came, in the small hours of the morning, waking up everybody except Galka, my youngest baby sister. She was still waiting for the glorious end of her morning dreams…

There is no other way of living but to become a vagabond… There is no other way but into crime… The war… Captivity… No place in the sun…

The sergeant, sleepy fish-eyes above a flattened nose, escorts me to the platform at the end of the car. He throws a look over his shoulder, opens the door, stands beside it: – Go ahead, go ahead – jump! – Why should I? – You know how it is, these days… Guys like you are none too welcome anywhere. Jump, or you’ll land in a lumber camp!

Some bravely go ahead and some are just blown away by the wind…

[Dovile · Rating 3 out of 5]

Netgi labai nebloga apysaka. Keista, kad 1964 metais Vagai leido ją išleisti, nes pagrindinis herojus tikrai labai netipiškas ir pokario gyvenimas vaizduojamas nerožinėmis spalvomis kaip kitose komunizmą šlovinančiose knygose. Pagal stilių ir tematiką primena Broliai Karamazovai.

[PhriendlyCody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely dark, heavy, and philosophically deep tale of a criminal man in Soviet Russia. After reading so much of the political prisoners of the soviet era and the aristocrat class of the tsarist era, Maksimov gives completely new perspective of the hardships of life from the tracks, the chains, and the Taiga.

[Alani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Een boek dat ik vooral heel verwarrend vond, maar dat naar alle waarschijnlijkheid erg goed is. Dat klinkt verwarrend maar ik denk dat het bedoeld is om twee of meer keer te lezen. Dan is het punt dat de schrijver wou maken pas duidelijk (voor mij tenminste). Voor de rest wel erg boeiend voor de geïnteresseerden in Russische literatuur en in de filosofie van een eenzame vervreemde man.

[Lochie · Rating 3 out of 5]

a dark and bleak portrayal of life as a criminal during the Soviet era. the survivor guilt complex is weaved well into the narrative, however the story jumps around multiple points in time which made it feel jarring to follow