Karaganov, Aleksandr

Karaganov, Aleksandr Vasil’evich 

Born Aug. 24 (Sept. 6), 1915, in the village of Martynovo, in present-day Ustiuzhna Raion, Vologda Oblast. Soviet literary and cinema scholar and critic; doctor of the arts (1969); professor (1970). Member of the CPSU since 1956.

Karaganov graduated from the Moscow Institute of the History of Philosophy and Literature (1939). He began his literary activity in 1931 as a journalist. During 1945–48 he was editor in chief of the magazine Soviet Literature (in English). In 1958 he became editor in chief of the Iskusstvo Publishing House and was its director during 1960–64. In 1965 he became secretary of the Cinematographers’ Union of the USSR.

Karaganov has been publishing articles on problems of literature, the cinema, and the theater since 1945. He is the author of Chernyshevskii and Dobroliubov on Realism (1955), Characters and Circumstances (1959), The Life of a Dramatist: The Creative Path of Aleksandr Afinogenov (1964), The Lights of Smol’ny (1966), Cinematographic Meetings (1969), and Born of the Revolution: Soviet Film Yesterday and Today (1970). Karaganov is a teacher (since 1964 at the Academy of Social Sciences under the auspices of the Central Committee of the CPSU). He was awarded the order of the Red Banner of Labor and medals.