Gennady Muravin

Gennady L’vovich Muravin (Геннадий Львович Муравин; 14 May 1931 – 8 November 2021) was a Russian translator, journalist and artist, who lived and worked mostly in Estonia and Finland.

Early life Muravin was born in Belgorod in the Soviet Union, but he grew up in Kharkiv, Ukraine. His father was a well-known sculptor. During the Second World War, the family was evacuated to Alma-Ata.

Working career Muravin worked as a journalist in the All-Union Radio, and then in various magazines and children's magazines. While he was working in a magazine named Moskva, the magazine managed to publish the novel The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. From the 1970s on, he translated also Finnish literature into Russian.

Muravin also worked in Tallinnfilm, where he wrote the screenplay for the documentary film "See on täiesti tõsine asi" (‘This is a completely serious thing’) (1982). He also wrote the screenplay for the films "Tuli öös" (1973), "Röövpüüdjajaht" (1975), "Aeg elada, aeg armastada" (1976) ja "Jõulud Vigalas" (1980). In the last mentioned film, he also played a character call Schmidt, who was an officer.

In 2016 he published a book in Estonian called "Ebatsensuursed juhtumid: Sekeldused eesti raamatutega nõukogude ajal" (‘Uncensored cases: confusions in Estonian books in the Soviet times’). In it, he describes the absurd fates of Estonian and Russian writers and their books in the Soviet Union and its censorship organizations. At the time of his death, he was finishing a sequel to the book.