The directory «Plots»

Belyayev (Беляев) Alexander Romanovich
(1884—1942)

Alexander Romanovich Belyayev was a Russian author of science fiction whose body of work from the 1920s and 1930s made him a highly regarded figure in Soviet science fiction. His published works include Professor Dowell's Head, Amphibian Man, Ariel, and The Star KETs (KETs are the initials of Konstantine Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky), The Air Seller, and many more.

Born in Smolensk, at the age of 30 Alexander became ill (Tuberculosis pleuritis). Treatment was unsuccessful tuberculosis infection spread to the spine and resulted in the paralisis of the legs. Belyayev suffered constant pain and was paralyzed for 6 years. In search for the right tratment he moved to Yalta together with his mother and old nanny. In his convalescence, he turned to the work of Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, in the hospital bed began to write poetry. By 1922 he overcomes the disease and in 1923 returns to Moscow where he began his serious literary activity as writer of sciencefiction novels, in 1925 his first novel Professor Dowell's head was published. Since 1931 he was living in Leningrad with his wife and oldest daughter (youngest daughter (6) dyed of meningitis in 1930). In Leningrad he met H.G. Wells who visited USSR in 1934. Last years of his life Belyaev lives in the Leningrad's suburb the Town of Pushkin (former Tsarskoe selo). At the beginning of the WWII he refused to evacuate because he was recovering after an operation that he undergone a few month earlier. Belyayev died of hunger in Pushkin in 1942 while it was occupied by the Nazis. His wife and daughter, who managed to survive, were taken away to Poland by the Nazis. Exact place of his grave is unknown. Memorial stone at the Kazanskoe cemetery of the town of Pushkin is placed on the mass grave where he assumed to be buried.

Russia, 2009, 125th Birth Aniv of Alexander Belyayev