Lev Razgon

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Lev Emmanuilovich Razgon (April 1, 1908 — September 8, 1999) was a writer in Soviet Union. He spent 17 years (1938-1955) in GULAG labor camps.

After rehabilitation he resumed his writing and published a number of books while writing his memoirs about gulag. He started publishing excerpts from his memoirs in literary magazines in 1987.

The first published excerpt was printed in Ogonyok magazine under the title President's Wife ("Zhena Prezidenta"), an unbelievable but true story featuring Ekaterina Kalinina, the wife of the first Soviet President Mikhail Kalinin, who served in labor camps in Komi taiga.

The memoirs titled Nepridumannoye ("Not Made-up") were published in Moscow in the Library of the Ogonyok Magazine series in 1988. They were translated into English as True Stories (1996, ISBN 0-87501-108-X).

Together with Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Razgon was among the founders of the Memorial Society. He was a member of the Commission for Clemency created by Yeltsin that worked for the abolition of death penalty in Russia and reform of the judicial system.

[edit] References

Obituary: Lev Razgon, The Independent September 22, 1999 by Harry Shukman

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