Vladimir Osipov
Russian writer (1938–2020)
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Vladimir Nikolaevich Osipov (Russian: Влади́мир Никола́евич О́сипов; 9 August 1938 – 20 October 2020)[2] was a Russian writer who founded the Soviet samizdat journal Veche (Assembly).[3] The journal is considered to be an important document of the nationalist or Slavophile strand within the Soviet dissident movement.[2][4]
Biography
Vladimir Osipov was born on 9 August 1938 in Slantsy, Leningrad Oblast.[1]
He entered studies at the History faculty of Moscow State University. He was expelled in 1959 for protesting the arrest of Anatoly Ivanov, a fellow student, but was able to finish his studies at the Moscow Pedagogical Institute in 1960.[4][1]
As a student, Osipov was involved in reviving the informal Mayakovsky Square poetry readings in 1960.[5] During this time, he produced a samizdat (self-published) literary journal Boomerang.[6]
In 1961, Osipov was sentenced to seven years in strict-regime labour camps for "Anti-Soviet propaganda".[2] In the camps, he converted to Christianity.[4] He was released in 1968 and managed to find work as a fireman.[4]
During the years 1971-1973, Osipov produced nine issues of the samizdat journal Veche (Assembly). The journal was to be a "Russian patriotic journal" that followed the tradition of Fyodor Dostoyevsky and the Slavophiles, taking what Osipov called a "Russophile" position.[4]
Osipov also edited the samizdat journal Zemlia (Earth) in 1974, with a more religious orientation. Zemlia carried material by Russian Orthodox dissenters such as Anatoly Levitin-Krasnov.[4]
In 1974, Osipov was arrested, tried, and sentenced to a second term for engaging in "anti-Soviet propaganda".[2]
Osipov took part in the defence of the parliament during the attempted hard-line coup against Gorbachev in August 1991.[7]
During the 1990s and early 2000s, Osipov was active as one of the leaders of the Union "Christian Rebirth" (UCR), which calls for the establishment of a constitutional monarchy.[7]
His third wife was writer Adel Naidenovich, who also participated in the samizdat journal Veche.[8]