Biografy

I live in Moscow region, and I have been working as tourist guide in the center of Moscow. I am a member of the Writers’ Union of Moscow (since 2003) and of the Association of Tourist Guides and Translators (since 2004).
I am writing stories, novels, and essays since 1976, after the death of my mother. One of the first stories was dedicated to her, describing the life of Russian woman after the Second World War.
My first published work appeared in 1987 in the unofficial literary magazine “Mitin journal” where writers not accepted by the Soviets were publishing their works.
I could publish my works as books only after the perestroika because they did not correspond to the spirit of the socialistic realism. My heroes were simple persons living under difficult conditions of the Soviet reality.
My first books were published in 2002 and 2003. The first one is a collection of short stories; several of them depict the everyday life in a small town.
My second book was a historical novel describing a chapter from the history of the early Christianity.

Thus, the list of my publications “on the paper” is as follows:

  • «Гомо скрибенс». Изд-во С. В. Митурича «Три квадрата», 2002, 240 pages. (“Homo scribens”. Publishing house S.V.Miturich)
  • «Иисус из Клазомен». «Три квадрата», 2003. 350 pages (“Jesus from Clasomenes”. Publishing house S.V.Miturich)
  • “Evridika” Deribasovkaja – Risheljevskaja. Al’manach, 2003, vyp. 2 (13), p. 178-192
  • «Встречи»: Журнал У. Изд. Э. Ракитской, дизайн О. Романовой. 2003, 1. (“Meetings” – magazine “U”). P.88-91.

Since 2001 I am also publishing my stories in the Internet magazines:

My stories have been anthologized in several prominent collections of the modern literature in Internet:
http://lit.lib.ru/g/ganichew_g_j/

My very short stories have been chosen for an anthology of this genre: http://www.vavilon.ru/shortprose/ganichev.html

I took part in the writers’ conference “Short Prosa” (November, 2006)

I have been in the short list of the literary competition of the computer magazine “Tochka. Zrenie”: http://lito.ru/about.php with the story “Seryj volk” (“Grey Wolf”).

My publications were reviewed by several prominent literary critics: Evgenija Shtsheglova “Neva” 2003, 9, and Lev Anninskiy “Druzhba narodov”, 2004, 4; , Larissa Naiditch: “Russkaja mysl’” – “La pensée Russe”, 2002, 4433, 28.11-4.12. P.10. (In Russian); see also: www.niworld.ru/arhivarius/naidich/ganichevi.htm The reviews were very positive.

I continue to work on stories, and began to write a psychological story about the life in a Russian village in 1990-ies.

I began to write in seventies. I wrote the short lyrical texts.

In my first stories two important issues emerge: the life of a rural society in the Russian province, and the psychology of a young intellectual who sometimes acts as narrator of a story. Later these texts were collected and published first in Internet and then, as late as in 2002, in his book under the title “Homo scribens”.

They could not be published in the Soviet magazines or publishing houses because of the lack of “optimism” and of the description of the “achievements of the socialism”. The French newspaper “Russkaja mysl’” – “La pensée Russe” (2002, 4433, 28.11-4.12. P.10), “A man from the boiling room”, since many Russian intellectuals, writers and artists, persons with high level of education, were earning their living working as a stokers, yard-keepers, etc. This kind of choice was caused not by lack of adequate income in another job or impossibility to find another position; it was rather a protest against the Soviet society, and the refuse to serve to the Soviets. Thus, in one of the stories the life of a man working in a bathhouse is described (the story “Mama” – “Mother”). This character typical of a period in the history of Russian intellectuals. Another story, “How I am loving”, has been published in the unofficial and uncensored literary magazine “Mitin journal” in 1987. This story became very popular; later it was reprinted several times.

Another side is my historical prose. I have written a novel, where the action takes place in Old Greece and in Rome during the period of the early Christianity – “Jesus from Klasomenes”. I tried to show the historical roots of the Christianity, but more important was to investigate the psychology of a religious person who is ready to sacrifice himself for his belief. Thus, the material of this book was taken from historical sources, but the chief ideas are modern. The most famous Russian literary critic Lev Alexandrovich Anninsky published a review of this book underlining its high artistic quality, as well as its actuality.

The reflections on true and false belief and on psychology of a religious person can be also find in the story “Virgin Mary”, where scene of action is laid in the medieval Germany. I parallel here the idealized love of his hero to the Virgin with his earthy love to a woman and to his little son.