Anatolii Naumovich Rybakov's major novel, Deti Arbata (1987; translated as Children of the Arbat, 1988), waited twenty years to be published in the era of glasnost' (openness). It appeared at a time when horrible truths about Russia's recent past were capturing the reading public, which had grown weary of the official propaganda that had made up much of Soviet Russian literature. An eyewitness to his age, Rybakov combines historical narrative with psychological portraiture to try to unravel the motives and consequences of Joseph Stalin's actions. Though some critics consider him not to be a writer of the first rank, Rybakov will be remembered as a witness to the horrors of the Great Terror and Stalin's cult of personality.

Rybakov was born on 14 January 1911 in Chernigov, Ukraine, to Naum Borisovich Aronov, a manager of distilleries, and Dina Avraamova Aronov. In his posthumously published memoir, Roman-vospominanie (1997, Novel-Reminiscence), Rybakov describes his father as...