Vladimir Dudintsev

Who was Vladimir Dudintsev?

Vladimir Dimitrievich Dudintsev was a Ukrainian-born Russian writer who gained fame for his 1956 novel, Not by Bread Alone, published at the time of the Khruschev Thaw.

Dudintsev, the son of a member of the gentry, attended law school in Moscow and fought during the second world war. After the war, he became a reporter and writer.

Inspired by Soviet apparatchiks refusing to credit a report of a deposit of nickel because Soviet dogma said it was impossible, Dudintsev wrote Not by Bread Alone, the tale of an engineer who is frustrated by bureaucrats when he attempts to bring forth his invention. The novel sparked wild enthusiasm among the Soviet population. Official reaction soon turned against the book, and Dudintsev suffered years of poverty, and was only able to publish occasional works. As the USSR tottered, in 1987, Dudintsev published a novel, The White Robes, for which he was awarded a State Prize the following year. He died in 1998.