The portrait of Andrej Synyavsky on the cover of on his books published in Italian
Andrei Sinyavsky worked for the Soviet Academy of Science’s Institute of World Literature and was also the leading literary critic for "Novyj Mir". He was renowned for his stimulating and anti-conformist essays on 20th century Russian poetry and literature. In the late Fifties, under the pseudonym Abram Terz, he began writing stories, short novels and fiercely satirical essays on the state of affairs in the Soviet Union, smuggling them out of the country for publication abroad. In 1966 he was discovered and tried in an infamous show trial along with his friend and "literary accomplice" Yuli Daniel. He was sentenced to 7 years’ hard labour in a maximum security camp. In 1973 he was allowed to leave the country and he settled in Paris, where he taught for many years at the Sorbonne. His books include: A Voice from the Chorus, Goodnight!, Ivan the Fool.