The theme of prison and imprisonment in their works is considered by many famous writers - both Russian and Soviet, as well as foreign. One of the first names that comes to mind with the phrase “prison literature” is Dovlatov, whose work “Zone” reflects his memories of his service in the security system of forced labor camps.
No less popular is the book My Life in Prison, written in 1912. Its author, Donald Lowry, was a real prisoner in an American prison.
Dostoevsky also addressed this topic in the novel Notes from the Dead House, again based on real experience.
The later period (the end of the 20th century) includes the work of Leonid Gabyshev, who created several works about life in custody. His novels became a real revelation and caused a serious resonance among critics and readers.
Biography of Leonid Gabyshev
The future writer was born on July 19, 1952 in the city of Omsk and was the youngest child in the family and his only son. Father Leonid Andreyevich Gabyshev served in the police, occupying high positions.
When Leonid was 5 years old, a tragic event happened to him: the boy received a gunshot injury - the same thing happened with the hero of his future work “Odlyan, or the air of freedom”. The shot hit right in the face, depriving the child of his left eye. Leonid Gabyshev miraculously survived, but a traumatic brain injury seriously affected not only his appearance, but also his mental health. The consequences will be felt after many years.
The further fate of Leonid Gabyshev can hardly be called happy. As a teenager, he ended up in a juvenile colony, where he spent about 5 years.
After his release from the colony, he entered the Volgograd Construction College, which he graduated in 1977. In subsequent years, Leonid Gabyshev lived in Volgograd and changed many professions - carpenter, glazier, fireman, plumber and others. However, due to the very traumatic brain injury, any work that required intensive intellectual work was forbidden for him.
In 1983, Gabyshev’s first novel was completed, but the publication took place only after 6 years in an abridged form. In 1990, the author was admitted to the Union of Writers of the USSR.
A few years later, the consequences of a bullet wound received in childhood began to manifest: the writer showed signs of severe mental disorder. Family members of Leonid Gabyshev said that he painted crosses and circles on the walls, and also burned books (including his own, published with his own money), destroyed other things in the house.
The author’s life now
Due to the severity and uncontrollability of his mental illness, Gabyshev is currently permanently in a psychoneurological boarding school in the city of Kotovo.
Doctors watching Gabyshev at the boarding school do not make positive predictions. Every year, the opportunity to lead a normal life again becomes more and more unrealistic for Leonid Andreyevich. However, as close relatives periodically visiting him say, Gabyshev is firmly convinced that someday he will leave the hospital healthy and write many more novels.
Family and relationships with loved ones
In 2012, Leonid Gabyshev's only daughter, Lyubov Aleksandrova, was interviewed by Volgograd Pravda magazine in honor of the writer’s 60th birthday. It reveals the details of Gabyshev's daily life: the way he was a father, husband, friend.
The writer did not behave like a stereotypical prisoner. It seemed that the prison past did not leave an imprint on his personality. Love said that she had learned that dad was serving time in a colony, already at a fairly adult age of 15 years. Gabysheva's wife found out about this only a few years after the birth of her daughter.
Relatives noted the correct literary speech of Leonid Andreyevich and adequate behavior. However, everything changed in the mid-90s, when signs of mental instability of the writer appeared.
Bibliography. “Odlyan, or the air of freedom”
The novel is almost completely autobiographical. The action takes place in the 60-70s of the last century. The protagonist is a 15-year-old village boy named Kolya Petrov, convicted of petty theft.
“Odlyan”, referred to in the title of the work, is a prison for juvenile delinquents located somewhere in the Urals. It is not difficult to recognize in this word a reference to "Atlyan" - the colony where the writer Leonid Gabyshev himself spent a long 5 years.
The novel covers about 2 years of the protagonist's life in a place of detention. Gabyshev describes in detail and in detail all aspects of his stay in the colony: local life, customs and routines, the environment, and, of course, other prisoners. It should be noted that in the novel there are practically no heroes who can be called positive. Even Kolka Petrov himself is far from this definition.
Readers characterize the novel as a cruel and truly scary work. This is a story about how a young soul perishes and decays.
History of the publication of the novel
In addition to the author himself, the first to read the story of Odlyan and Kolka Petrov was writer Andrei Georgievich Bitov. In 1983, Gabyshev brought him his manuscript. Bitov himself later said that he unceremoniously “showed up” to his home with a briefcase that barely contained hundreds of pages written down. Bitov allowed Gabyshev to leave his creation and, having begun to study it, could not come off. “Odlyan, or the air of freedom” captivated the writer so much that Andrei Bitov read it in a couple of days.
Then the manuscript came to Sergey Zalygin, who described the novel as follows: "it is written poorly and well."
The first two parts of Odlyana were published in 1989 in the most read Soviet magazine of the time, New World.
"From zone to zone"
Another book by Leonid Gabyshev - "From zone to zone." This work is a logical continuation of the author’s first novel. The main character is already familiar to readers Kolya Petrov, recently freed from the colony and arrived in Moscow. He suffocates from such a new and unusual for him freedom and feels happier than anyone.
Kolya Petrov has to remember again what life is without bars and fences. He gets acquainted with relatives whom he had never seen before, finds a job, enters a technical school, travels to Leningrad and walks along Nevsky Prospect. However, the prison past does not let the young man go.
It is noteworthy that the work mentions Solzhenitsyn and his novel "The Gulag Archipelago", exposing the horrors of the Stalinist camps.
“Zhora the Blessed. Confession Diary
The background of Gabyshev’s last novel is summarized in the preface to him. The writer says that once in the summer of 1991 he received a parcel from Moscow by mail. In it lay a thick book, to which was attached a note from the sender.
Someone named George the Blessed (this name was written on the package next to the return address) in this note turned to Gabyshev, explaining that this book is nothing more than a confession diary, which the mysterious sender kept for several years and stopped due to that his health began to deteriorate.
The novel "Zhora Blessed. Confession Diary ”is a story about the life of a patient in a psychiatric hospital. A brief annotation states that the protagonist, whose name became the name of the book, appears as the “great martyr of social injustice.”
Readers' Opinion and Criticism
Gabyshev's works are still in demand and popular among literature lovers. Despite the fact that he created only a few works, critics and readers Leonid Andreyevich will forever be remembered as the author of cruel, shocking and truthful prose about a colony for juvenile delinquents.
This is exactly how the critic Natalia Ivanova describes Gabyshev’s work, noting that “Odlyan, or the air of freedom” has become one of the most notable works ever published on the pages of the New World magazine. The author had to experience all the hardships of such a life directly on himself, so Odlyan and subsequent novels simply could not turn out to be implausible.