Vasily Yan

Vasily Yan (Russian: Васи́лий Ян; 23 December 1874 (4 January 1875), Kyiv, Russian Empire – August 5, 1954, Zvenigorod, Moscow Oblast) was a Ukrainian origin Soviet writer author of famous historic novels. His father came from a family of Volyn priests, after seminary and university he taught Latin and Greek at the gymnasium. Spelled "Vassily Yan" (or "Ian") or just "V. Yan", this is the pen name of Vassily Grigoryevich Yanchevetsky (Васи́лий Григо́рьевич Янчеве́цкий).

Biography

Born in Kyiv to a family of teachers, his father was from an Orthodox Christian priests family, who graduated from seminary and taught Latin and Greek at the University Gymnasium.

In 1897, Yan graduated from the historical and philological faculty of St. Petersburg University. Impressions of a two-year tour of Russia form the backbone of his book Notes of a Pedestrian (1901). In 1901–1904 he served as inspector of wells in Turkestan, where he studied Oriental languages and lives of local people. During the Russian-Japanese war, he was a military correspondent for the St. Petersburg News Agency (SPA). In 1906–1913, he taught Latin at the first Petersburg Gymnasium. As an organizer of the scouts he met with Colonel Robert Baden-Powell, who came to Russia in 1910.

In the autumn of 1910 Vasily Yan introduced the magazine Pupil. In 1913, he worked as a correspondent in Turkey SPA. In 1914, with the beginning of the First World War - he became SPA military correspondent in Romania. In 1918–1919 he worked in the Kolchak printing shop army camp in Siberia. After the restoration of Soviet power in Achinsk he worked as a teacher, correspondent and director of schools in Uryanhae (Tuva). He then became the editor of the leading newspaper The Power of labour in Minusinsk. That was when he first adopted the pseudonym Yan. In 1923, he moved to Moscow.

Works by Vasily Yan

• "Notes of a Pedestrian", 1901
• story "Story of Captain", 1907
• story "Soul", 1910
• "Raising of the Übermensch", 1910
• "What You Need to do for the Children of St. Petersburg", 1911
• novel "The Afghan Emerald"
• story "Phoenician Ship", 1931
• story "The Lights at Barrows", 1932
• story "Spartacus", 1933
• story "Hammermen", 1933
• Mongol invasion (trilogy):
  • story "Genghis Khan", 1939 (the USSR State Prize in 1942)
  • story "Baty", 1942
  • story "To Last Sea", published 1955
• "Kids Commander"
• "The Mystery of Lake Kara-Standard"
• "Yermak's Campaign"
• "On the Wings of Courage"
• "Melters of the Vandzh"
• "In the Sands of the Karakum"

Falsification of the novel "Ermak's Campaign" was carried out in 2011 by "Leningrad publishing house" (ЛЕНИЗДАТ). In fact this novel is Lydia Charskaya's "Formidable squad" (Грозная дружина) published in 1909. The circulation of the fake "Lenizdat" was only 7050 copies. Since the falsification was successful, it is referred to as the real work of Vasily Yan.

External links

• Media related to Vasily Yan at Wikimedia Commons