January 8, 1922
Born in Kharkov Anatoly Agranovsky — writer, “journalist number one” of the 1960s and 1970s.
It is not the one who writes well who writes well, but the one who thinks well.
Father - writer, journalist for Pravda and Izvestia Abram Agranovskiy, In 1937, he was accused of "conspiracy among journalists" and sentenced to 10 years in a labor camp. His mother, as a member of the family of a traitor to the Motherland, spent eight years in Karlag.
When they were arrested, Anatoly was 15.
He experienced the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War as a history student. By that time, his father, who had spent five years in the camps, had been rehabilitated, reinstated in the party, and continued working at Ogonyok.
In Norillag, my father remained a man of principle and courage, saving many from death, establishing Norilsk medicine [he was a physician by training], and even held the first Arctic conference of medical scientists in Norilsk (and the forces gathered in those places, alas, were considerable).
In 1942, he graduated from the institute, later from the Gunner-Radio Operator School and the Higher Aviation School of Bombardier-Navigators. From 1943, he fought at the front.
After demobilization, he worked as an animator, assistant cameraman, and retoucher. He wrote the screenplays for the films "They Conquer the Sky" and "I'm Going to Search."
In 1958, he graduated from the Higher Literary Courses at the Gorky Literary Institute. He began publishing in Literaturnaya Gazeta and the magazines Znamya and Novy Mir. From 1961, he became a special correspondent for Izvestia.
Everything was in disarray in the Titovs' house [the family of cosmonaut German Titov], everyone was talking at once, my mother was crying, my father was consoling her, a correspondent from Sovetskaya Rossiya was knocking on the door, the smell of valerian was in the air, and from somewhere in the street, photojournalists were climbing up to the windows, trampling the flowerbed. I thought: fame had burst into this house, stamping its boots, noisy, sweaty, unceremonious. And only many days later did I understand that without this troublemaker, the Titovs would have been in dire straits, that the public solitude to which the noisy journalists had condemned them was their salvation during those longest days of their lives.
In the mid-1960s, he wrote a “programmatic” article for his colleagues (and between the lines, for all Soviet citizens) “Let’s Think.”
Repeating a description has always been considered shameful—it's plagiarism. But repeating an idea for the hundredth, thousandth time, and even using the same hackneyed words—for some reason, that's not considered shameful here.
He became renowned as a talented essayist. He considered the essay one of the most important literary genres.
Achieved the doctor's reinstatement Svyatoslav Fedorov, who was hounded after a unique operation (implantation of an artificial lens in a girl’s eye, which restored her sight).
It's a disaster if they write about you in the press! It's bad if they criticize you—that's clear to everyone. But you'll repent, and you'll be forgiven. But if they praise you, oh, there will be people who will never forgive you.
("The Discovery of Dr. Fedorov," Izvestia, 1965)
He urged people to move away from cliches and superficiality. He taught the same to young students and journalists who turned to him for advice.
Don't write about corn, even if everyone else is. Find the strength to put down your pen and not participate in the general campaign.
In the 1970s, he was called "journalist number one." Many journalists during the perestroika period called themselves Agranovsky's disciples.
During his life he published more than 20 books.
Just a few years ago, there was a debate about whether to write "I" or "we." Few dared to use "I." Now there's no debate; all essayists write "I." But if you're going to use "I," you have to see what no one else has seen, find a fact no one else has found, express a new and uncluttered thought.
One of the highest forms of courage is the courage of thought.
He was close to the bard movement and wrote songs based on the poems of famous poets.
Wrote the second part of the trilogy of memories Brezhnev "Renaissance" (for which the General Secretary was awarded the Lenin Prize for Literature). According to another version, he is one of the authors of the entire trilogy. He refused for a long time and received no royalties. When asked Chernenko He only asked for a reward to be assigned to the doctors at the Central Election Committee’s clinic, since he was often sick.
He died in 1984, at 62, in Moscow.
