Kazakevich, Emmanuil

Born Feb. 11 (24), 1913, in Kremenchug; died Sept. 22, 1962, in Moscow. Soviet Russian writer. Member of the CPSU from 1944.

Kazakevich’s first works to appear in print were verses, songs, and narrative poems written in Yiddish in the mid-1930’s. During the Great Patriotic War (1941–45) he served in the army in capacities ranging from soldier to assistant head of army intelligence. The war provided him with the basic theme of his prose; his novella The Star (1947; State Prize of the USSR, 1948), which dealt with the heroism of the Soviet reconnaissance officers, showed his originality as a writer and the psychological scope and lyricism of his narrative style. The problems of duty, guilt, and freedom of will are resolved in the novella Two in the Steppe (1948). His novels Spring on the Oder (1949; State Prize of the USSR, 1950) and The House on the Square (1956) focus on the last period of the war and the work of Soviet authorities in Germany in the early days of peace. Kazakevich displays an inventive use of plot and a diversity of stylistic idiom, which enables him to reenact mass scenes. His story “In the Light of Day” (1961) is imbued with a sense of the value of human life.

Kazakevich’s books are characterized by imagery that sustains the theme and the spiritual kinship between the heroes, whose characteristic trait is the endeavor to find meaning in their actions and in those of their comrades and whose civic and military bravery go hand in hand. His novella The Blue Notebook (1961) depicts Lenin living in Razliv. Many of Kazakevich’s works have been adapted for the screen, and his books have been translated into both foreign languages and the national languages of the USSR. He was awarded four orders and several medals.