About

Gaito Gazdanov (Ossetian name of Gæzdænty Ivany fyrt Gaito) (1903, St. Petersburg – 1971, Munich) – Russian emigrant writer of Ossetian origin, prose writer, and literary critic.
After the October Revolution, he joined the Wrangel volunteer movement, left his homeland in 1920, and never returned.
He lived in Paris between 1923 and 1953. For many years he worked as a stevedore, a locomotive washer, a labourer and a taxi driver. Sometimes the lack of work forced him to sleep in the street. Despite these difficulties, he completed his studies at the Faculty of History of the Sorbonne. From his first publications, he quickly gained a considerable literary reputation as a writer. He was considered the most talented of the young generation. During the Second World War, in 1942, he became an active member of the resistance group “Russian Patriots”. From 1953 he worked in Munich at Radio Liberty, where he became editor-in-chief of the Russian service.

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