Why a Booktrail?
1917 onwards: Shortlisted for the Andrei Bely Prize and Russia’s National Big Book Award
Solovyov and Larionov
What you need to know before your trail
Larionov. A general of the Imperial Russian Army who mysteriously avoided execution by the Bolsheviks when they swept to power and went on to live a long life in Yalta, leaving behind a vast heritage of memoirs.
Solovyov. The young history student who travels to Crimea, determined to find out how Larionov evaded capture after the 1917 revolution.
Travel Guide
BookTrail your travel to Russia – St Petersburg
Solovyov, a young history student living in St Petersburg is to work on a thesis – the life of the Imperial General Larionov. This is a student who wants to break away from his rural past and work in the big city, on a big figure.
The student investigates and visits libraries and historic places in his search for information on General Larionov. He finds out that he was a distinguished, yet bloody, commander in the White Russian army during the Russian Civil War. Solovyov finds that he was not one of the soldiers reminded of their past once the war was over. Many soldiers apparently had problems after the war as their past Tsarist loyalties were used against them and they were outcasts of society.
The General not only has a comfortable life but he has settled in the Crimean resort of Yalta. His new home is spent on a beach overlooking the Black Sea. He did write a memoir before he died but it’s either lost, incomplete or both. Solovyov goes in search of this to Yalta.
Where the student goes to investigate the General. This is where he meets Zoya, who works at the Chekhov Museum. During the 20th century Yalta was the principal holiday resort of the Soviet Union.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: Solovyov and Larionov
Destination: St Petersburg, Russia, Yalta, Crimean Peninsula Authour/guide: Eugene Vodolazkin Departure Time: Early 1900s onwards
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