Vladimir Orlov

Vladimir Viktorovich Orlov (; 31 August 1936 – 5 August 2014) was a Russian novelist, notable for his fantasy novel Danilov, the Violist.

Orlov was born in Moscow, but during World War II was evacuated to Mari El. Between 1954 and 1959, he was a student at the Faculty of Journalism of the Moscow State University. Subsequently, he took a job as a reporter with the Komsomolskaya Pravda working at the construction of the Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam and Tayshet-Abakan railroad, and at the same time started to write short stories, mainly under influence of Vasily Aksyonov. He published his book of short stories "Doroga dlinoy v sem' santimetrov" (The Seven Centimetre road) in 1960 and the novel "Solyony Arbuz" (The salted watermelon) in 1965.

In 1969, Orlov published his novel, Posle dozhdichka v chetverg(After the Rain on Thursday), and decided to become a full-time writer. Between 1969 and 1975, all the books Orlov submitted for publication were rejected for ideological reasons.

In 1975 he published the novel "Proishestviye v Nikolskom" (An incident in Nikolskoye),

In the 1990s and the 2000s, Orlov was teaching at the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow. He left behind a widow, Lidiya, with whom he had lived for nearly 60 years, and a son, Leonid Orlov, who as of 2014 was working as a television producer.