Vasily Belov

Vasily Ivanovich Belov (; 23 October 1932 – 4 December 2012 ) was a Soviet and Russian writer, poet and dramatist, who published more than sixty books which sold (as of 1998) seven million copies. Even detractors, though, praised Vasily Belov's tough stance on ecological issues and his activities aimed at restoration of the old Russian historic sites and churches. A great admirer of Ivan Ilyin and his legacy, Belov financed the publication of the first Complete Ilyin collection and wrote a preface for it.

Vasily Belov, the USSR State Prize (1981) and the State Prize of the Russian Federation (2003) laureate, was also a recipient of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1982), the Order of Lenin (1984), the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 4th class (2003) and the Order of Honour (2003).

Biography Vasily Ivanovich Belov was born in Timonikha, Kharovsky District, Northern Krai, now Vologda Oblast, into a peasant family, the eldest of five children. (1965).

It was the novella Privychnoye delo (Business as Usual, 1966) published by Sever magazine, that made Belov a well-known author, its main character Ivan Africanovich soon becoming the village prose movement's token figure. Business as Usual was miles apart from the standards of Socialist realism, and the magazine's editor Dmitry Gusarov even had to place the "To be concluded" tag in the end of it to appease censors who felt the story's finale was "too pessimistic". The leitmotif of the collection Upbringing According to Dr. Spock (1974) was the rural-against-urban lifestyle dilemma, the latter seen by the author as unnatural, amoral and deficient. Vasily Belov died on 4 December 2012, aged 80, in Vologda.

Accolades USSR State Prize (1981) State Prize of the Russian Federation (2003) Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1982) Order of Lenin (1984) Order of Reverend Sergius of Radonezh (Russian Orthodox Church, 2002) Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 4th class (2003) Order of Honour (2008)

Selected works

My Small Forest Village (Деревенька моя лесная, 1961, poetry collection) Village Berdyaika (Деревня Бердяйка, 1961, novelet) Sultry Summer (Знойное лето, 1963, short stories) Beyond the Three Voloks (За тремя волоками, 1965, novelet) Business as Usual (Привычное дело, 1966, novelet) The Carpenter's Tales (Плотницкие рассказы, 1968, short stories) Vologda's Buktinas (Бухтины волгодские, 1969, a collection of modern local folklore) Eves (Кануны, 1972–1983, a novel in three parts) The Upbringing According to Dr. Spock (Воспитание по доктору Споку, 1974, short stories) The Best is Yet to Come (Всё впереди, 1986, novel) Such Was the War (Такая была война, 1987, a collection of wartime prose) The Year of a Major Breakdown (Год великого перелома, 1989–1991, novel) The Sixth Hour. The 1932 chronicle (Час шестый. Хроника 1932 года, novel) The Old and the Small (Старый да малый, 1990, novelet) Honeymoon (Медовый месяц, 1996, novelet)