Tag: biography

Book: Pavel Sanaev “Bury Me Behind the Baseboard”

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Bury Me Behind the Baseboard by Pavel Sanaev was, for many years, a bit like Pasternak was for Soviet citizens. Meaning: I hadn’t read it, but I’d heard so much about it from all sides that, deep down, I didn’t even want to read it—I “disapproved” along with everyone else.

But the years went by. The book kept coming up, stage adaptations were made, and it even got a screen version with fantastic actors. So at some point I decided you can’t judge a book based on third-hand retellings.

Pavel Sanaev is the son of the actress Yelena Sanaeva, whom most people know as Alice the Fox from the film The Adventures of Buratino. He’s also the stepson of actor and director Rolan Bykov (a name that really needs no introduction). And he’s the grandson of the famous actor Vsevolod Sanaev (he appeared in all sorts of films, but Belarusians probably know him best as Fedos in White Dew).

And Bury Me Behind the Baseboard is a slightly fictionalized set of the author’s memories of his childhood. The names have been changed, but overall he’s simply telling the story of how he lived—separated from his mother—under the care of his grandmother, and to some extent his grandfather too.

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Book: Damien Mecheri, Sylvain Romieu “Dark Souls: Beyond the Grave. Volume 1: Demon’s Souls – Dark Souls – Dark Souls II”

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The term souls-like is now well established in the video game industry—players immediately understand what to expect from a game in this genre: it will be very hard, you’ll die many times, respawn, try again and again, learning your enemies and honing your skills along the way.

But just fifteen years ago, that wouldn’t have meant anything to anyone. “Souls-like” as in… like souls? What souls? Because it was only in 2009 that a game called Demon’s Souls came out and challenged the established rules of game design—at a time when the industry was increasingly trying to hold the player’s hand and help them at every turn. FromSoftware showed that if you kill the player from the very first minute and make it clear that their entire gaming experience means nothing in this world, it won’t just fail to scare people off—it can create a whole army of fans and, in essence, invent a new genre.

The book Dark Souls: Beyond the Grave promises to tell the story of how this series of games was created—starting with Demon’s Souls and continuing with its “offspring” in the form of the Dark Souls trilogy and beyond. And I was extremely interested to read how the creators came up with this approach, why they decided to bet on it, and how they built these games. First, this really is an entire subculture within gaming—and I’m not exactly its best representative as a player (I don’t like suffering all the time). Second, my team is currently making a game with similar mechanics, even if we want to push further (and who doesn’t?).

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Book: Pavel Volotovich, Alexey Kovalyov ‘From Panikovka to the Puck’

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Photo albums about my hometown, Minsk, are my weakness. I try to buy almost every one that comes into my sight. So when the book From Panikovka to the Puck came out in December, I managed to order it through friends.

The book was “written” by the same authors who previously produced the biography of the Belarusian band Neuro Dubel. This time, they set out to show where and why the city’s youth hung out in the 1990s — what those places with names like “Panikovka” and “Puck” were, and what actually went on there. I put the word “written” in quotation marks because there’s hardly any real authorial text here. It’s mostly a collection of photographs and quotes — memories from various “scene” regulars of the time — with only very brief introductions by the authors here and there.

Unfortunately, the selection of respondents is very limited. Some are well known to many Belarusians, but most belong to a very narrow circle of people few have ever heard of — mostly the so-called bohemia: musicians, journalists, DJs, artists.

The book gives a certain snapshot of that era. After reading it, you’re left with the aftertaste of those years. At the same time, there are several issues that kept the book from meeting my expectations. Roughly speaking, they fall into two categories: the “places” described and the people chosen to comment on them.

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Book: David Kushner “Masters of Doom”

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It seems like not so long ago I used to get carried away in computer clubs, where you had to move a few squares across the screen from point A to point B, and then there was a masterpiece in the form of the game Karateka. These days you look at a game that’s, say, five years old — ten, heaven forbid — and you already think: ugh, how could we even play that? And yet 35 years ago it was those very squares on the screen that seemed to us like a miracle of miracles.

And that’s why it’s so fascinating now to read the biographies of people who are, essentially, already legends, who rapidly changed both the video game industry itself and society’s attitude toward it. The story of id Software is just such an example.

David Kushner’s book is titled Masters of Doom, making it clear which game is considered the most famous, which name can attract potential readers. Modern players are more likely to know Doom (2016) and its sequel Doom Eternal, and are unlikely to have ever played those very first games.

For me, though, the acquaintance with the company’s games began much earlier — although back then I paid no attention to who actually made them. I remember playing Commander Keen in the school computer lab. And later, when Wolfenstein 3D appeared, it became not only a breakthrough and the progenitor of all shooter games. It was also the first game my father ever played on a computer — and at that time he was about as far from technology as one could be. So, you could say I’ve walked almost the entire path alongside this company — only as a player.

But when I say that the book tells the story of id Software, that’s not quite true. It’s not so much the story of a company as it is the story of its two founders — “the two Johns,” as the author constantly calls them: John Romero and John Carmack, two guys who “created an empire and transformed pop culture.”

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Book: Leonid Rabichev “War Excuses Everything”

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I was born in the USSR, where the Great Patriotic War was part of the country’s terrifying history. But I don’t recall anyone back then trying to glorify it and shouting “We can do it again.” They did heroize it—yes—and films often added notes of humor, without which, perhaps, war is impossible to endure. Yet they didn’t bombard us with rah-rah patriotism. Apparently because in every family the memory of those times was still fresh. Parents or grandparents remembered that war; many families had lost loved ones.

Then it was also shown from very frightening angles, like the documentary Triumph Over Violence or Elem Klimov’s acclaimed and very heavy Come and See.

Only they didn’t bring to the fore the flip side of any war—that in war there are no absolutely good and absolutely bad. War is blood, brutality, and sheer meanness on both sides; only the degree varies. Yes, many knew about “trophies” taken out from occupied territories, but that wasn’t considered looting, and they certainly didn’t make films about it. In one way or another, war also harmed the civilian population—and by no means only the enemy’s; it’s enough to read the recollections of the partisan movement in Belarus (a few years ago, incidentally, eyewitnesses were still alive).

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Book: Bulat Okudzhava “From School to the Front”

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Since my youth I have liked the work of Bulat Okudzhava, though back then I knew him only as a performer of songs. At home we had several of his records, and I enjoyed listening to the entire collection of my parents’ music. A little later I discovered Okudzhava also as the author of music and lyrics for many film songs, which I still enjoy listening to today.

Among other things, Bulat Okudzhava wrote quite a few songs for war films. I am sure almost everyone knows at least “We Face Deadly Fire” from Belorussky Station, or “Drops of the Danish King” from Zhenya, Zhenechka i ‘Katyusha‘. Okudzhava’s songs were able to convey the full range of feelings, and between the lines you could sense that the author knew what he was writing about.

And then I came across a book by Okudzhava from the series “My War,” in which veterans’ memoirs are published.

From School to the Front is not a single work but a collection of recollections that can formally be divided into “novellas” and “stories.” Formally — because this is not fiction, but rather the memoirs of Bulat Shalvovich, conveyed in his own manner.

The book begins with excerpts from interviews with the author, and only then come his writings. Okudzhava’s childhood was not easy. His father was repressed, and his mother also endured prison as the wife of a repressed man. And then came the war, at the start of which Bulat Okudzhava was only 17 years old.

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Book: “The Square of Changes”

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A few days ago marked two years since the death of Raman Bandarenka — a man who became one of the symbols of the 2020 protests in Belarus and, sadly, one of its victims. Raman was one of the residents of a Minsk courtyard at the intersection of Chervyakova Street, Kakhovskaya Street, and Smarhonski Tract, which during the protests became known as “Square of Changes.” Another resident of this “square,” Stsiapan Latypau, who handed out flowers to protesting women and actively took part in the life of his courtyard-“square,” was detained, attempted suicide several times during his trial, and ultimately received 8.5 years in a high-security prison.

In today’s world, we often know very little about our neighbors, especially when living in the huge “ant hills” of residential districts. But this courtyard became known to all concerned Belarusians. It appeared in many news reports, tea gatherings and even concerts were held there. Residents hung white-red-white ribbons on the fences, painted a mural on a transformer booth, and fought to preserve it. And it was for this reason that it received its own name — “Square of Changes.”

This courtyard, this phenomenon, has already been forever inscribed in the history of modern Belarus. And in 2022, Yauheni Otsietski decided to publish a photo album about this “square.”

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Book: Jean-Christian Petitfils “d’Artagnan”

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Ah, who doesn’t know d’Artagnan?! Every boy should know him from childhood! I also saw my first Three Musketeers film when I was just a little kid — it was some foreign, black-and-white, almost silent movie. And shortly after that, they showed the Musketeers on TV again — I happily sat down to watch, and then — bam! — disappointment, it was a completely different movie. But one that I came to love for many, many years. It was D’Artagnan and the Three Musketeers by Georgi Yungvald-Khilkevich. And even though it probably strayed further from Dumas’ original novel than any other version, its swashbuckling adventures and brilliant songs did their job.

I dreamed of being the Gascon, I wanted to be like him. And in third grade, I confessed this to a classmate who sat next to me at the same desk — and she decided to mock me and loudly revealed my secret to the entire class!

A bit later, when I was around 13, one of my classmates asked if I had listened to Kino (movie). Of course, he meant the band Kino, but I took it as a joke, even laughed — but when I got home, I turned that joke into reality. I bought a reel of magnetic audio tape at a store, and the next time my favorite three-part film was on, I recorded it using a reel-to-reel tape recorder. That way I could enjoy the songs I loved, and even the movie itself (I knew it by heart, so the sound alone was enough for me) anytime I wanted. That was a huge leap forward in those days.

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Book: Pavel Filatyev “ZOV”

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Many media outlets wrote about Pavel Filatyev’s book, as it offered a view of the war in Ukraine through the eyes of a professional Russian soldier who found himself there from the very first days.

Pavel Filatyev is a junior sergeant in the Russian Airborne Forces and comes from a military family. His father was also a paratrooper, and Pavel essentially grew up on a military base—where he would later return to serve. A real military lineage, much like in the Soviet film Officers, where they serve because “there is such a profession — to defend the Motherland.”

Moreover, both his father and Pavel himself were not just stationed idly at their units—they had real combat experience. Pavel fought in Chechnya. However, over time, the army became increasingly irrelevant, and he left for civilian life, where he spent nearly 10 years doing work unrelated to the military. But after a failed business venture and financial difficulties, he began considering a return to the army under a contract. He specifically wanted to join the same unit he’d known since childhood—though by then, it had already been restructured and relocated from his hometown to Feodosia, in Crimea, which had by that point been annexed.

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Book: Eva Mozes Kor “The Twins of Auschwitz”

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Josef Mengele is one of the Nazis whose name is synonymous with the atrocities of the Hitler regime. He was not only personally responsible for sorting prisoners at Auschwitz but also conducted horrifying experiments in his camp clinic.

One of his “projects” was an attempt to understand the nature of twins. Because of this, twins had a slightly higher chance of survival—not being sent directly to their deaths—even if they were unfit for labor in the camp. However, Mengele never considered them human and subjected both adults and tiny children to monstrous experiments. To him, they were nothing more than test subjects.

Eva Mozes Kor was one such twin, destined to die so that Mengele could observe how it would affect her sister. But against all odds, Eva survived. After the war, she wrote her memoirs about her time in that hell.

Eva lived with her family in Transylvania when the war arrived. Her father wanted to escape to Palestine, where Jews were beginning to build their own state, but her mother couldn’t bring herself to leave everything behind and take the children into the unknown. Because of this, their once well-off family was among the first to experience the hatred and cruelty of their former neighbors. And when they finally decided to flee, it was already too late.

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