Andrei Sinyavsky

Andrei Donatovich Sinyavsky
Sinyavsky in Amsterdam, 29 November 1975
Sinyavsky in Amsterdam, 29 November 1975
Native name
Андрей Донатович Синявский
Born(1925-10-08)October 8, 1925
Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
DiedFebruary 25, 1997(1997-02-25) (aged 71)
Fontenay-aux-Roses, France
Pen nameAbram Tertz
OccupationWriter, publisher, literary critic
NationalityRussian
Alma materMoscow State University
Literary movementMagic realism
SpouseMaria Rozanova
ChildrenIegor Gran
Signature

Andrei Donatovich Sinyavsky (Russian: Андре́й Дона́тович Синя́вский; 8 October 1925 – 25 February 1997) was a Russian writer and Soviet dissident known as a defendant in the Sinyavsky–Daniel trial of 1965.

Sinyavsky was a literary critic for Novy Mir and wrote works critical of Soviet society under the pseudonym Abram Tertz (Абрам Терц) published in the West to avoid censorship in the Soviet Union. Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel were convicted of Anti-Soviet agitation in a show trial, becoming the first Soviet writers convicted solely for their works and for fiction, and served six years at a Gulag camp. Sinyavsky emigrated to France in 1973 where he became a professor of Russian literature and published numerous autobiographical and retrospective works.