Remembering the Socialist Past - Bad request! - University of Exeter

himself suggest that the texts will also appeal to adults who grew up in the 1960s
and 1970s. Minaev depicts Leva’s childhood with affection and sometimes explicit
nostalgia. The text conveys a mostly happy childhood, with the narrative focussed
on family life and exploits with friends. Leva is fiercely patriotic and comes from a
family who are clearly succeeding within Soviet society; his father is a senior
engineer and drives a Volga, and his mother is highly educated. 23 Leva’s best
friend, Kolupaev, meanwhile offers a more cynical view on Soviet society and
expresses a wish to leave for America.
20
Pokhoronite menia za plintusom (1996) is a hugely successful semi-
autobiographical novel by Pavel Sanaev (b. 1969). 24 He describes the life of his
protagonist (named Sasha Savel′ev) living with his grandparents. Sasha’s
grandmother is controlling and often cruel. She allows Sasha very little contact with
his mother, and the few occasions he spends with her are a source of great
happiness. Sasha is a sickly child, although it is not clear whether the seriousness
of his condition is exaggerated by the grandmother; she has told him that he will
probably die by the age of 16. The text is mostly confined to the child’s perspective,
with occasional passages which follow other adult characters overhearing their
conversations in places where the child could not be. This has the effect of
suggesting reasons for their behaviour, and allows a fuller picture of events than
would be possible if the child’s perspective was strictly maintained. There is,
however, never a clear intrusion by any external author or narrator commenting on
the action. Despite the psychological cruelty experienced by the narrator, he
usually describes events in a matter of fact and sometimes humorous way. Sanaev
is the step-son of the famous Soviet actor, Rolan Bykov, and his mother and
grandfather were also known as actors, so there is unsurprisingly some interest in
whether Sanaev’s account is a true story of his own family life. The book, defined
on publication as a novel (roman), appears to be widely received by readers and
23 Minaev, pp. 194, 204, and 241.
24 Pavel Sanaev, Pokhoronite menia za plintusom (Moscow: Astrel′, 2008).