Iurii Kazakov revived and strengthened, even during the post-Stalin period of the Thaw, the bonds between contemporary literature and the tradition of classical realism. In his prose the Russian realistic tradition merged with the existentialist philosophy of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, Ivan Alekseevich Bunin, Leonid Nikolaevich Andreev, and others, that were forcibly interrupted during the Stalinist period. By moving logically along this path and perfecting the chief instrument of realism--the art of psychological analysis that led him to a fine "micronized" acuteness and subtlety--Kazakov entered those spiritual spheres that had been only tentatively explored by classical realism. He was a person whose character bore the stamp of his time and whose lot lay within the realm of the most mundane human cares. In his prose he revealed the deepest drama of human consciousness.

Iurii Pavlovich Kazakov was born on 8 August 1927 in Moscow into a family of workers. In "Autobiography...