Alexander Belyayev

Surprisingly little is known about Alexander Belyayev, who holds the title of "the classic of Soviet science fiction," and modern biographical references about him are filled with inaccuracies. He was a graduate of a theological seminary and a legal lyceum - worked in the court, acted in theatre, was a journalist, and even a police officer. After a series of tragic circumstances, including a serious illness that periodically kept him bedridden, Belyayev's life changed: a science fiction writer emerged, who had a keen sense of modernity and a gift for scientific foresight. Wide recognition came to him posthumously - Belyayev died of starvation in the fascist-occupied Pushkin.
The author of the book, the well-known Israeli literary scholar Zeev Bar-Sella, relying on archival documents, the memories of contemporaries, the writings of the author, and the criticism of his work, reconstructs the biography of Alexander Romanovich Belyayev in the context of the complex time in which he lived and worked.