Sabilo Ivan Ivanovich

    I was born in Minsk on April 22, 1944. My father Ivan Yakovlevich worked as a special technology trainer in a railroad technical school and was a devoted book-reader. My mother Klaudia Nikolayevna Bortnik (by her maiden name) worked in a factory archive.
   I grew up in a railroad cargo station area. My father considered railroad workers to be "the aristocracy of the working class", meaning above other things their sacralization of labor. The people of our circle valued the truth and strove to live according to their conscience.
   My Minsk childhood allowed me to do whatever my soul pleased. I went in for choreography since the age of 12, started boxing at 15 and received a prize at a Minsk youth boxing championship. An excess of feelings and life experiences provoked me to start writing poetry.
   I graduated from the railroad technical school, specializing in carpentry, and came to Leningrad as a young man. I won one of the Northern Capital's boxing contests. Started to write prose at 20, after reading R. Pogodin's novel "Dubravka" in "Youth" ("Yunost") magazine. My first short story, "To the Person of My Age", was published in "Neman" magazine in 1964.
   I graduated from the Leshaft Physical Culture Institute. Worked as a teacher in the professional technical education system, in the Frunze Higher Naval School, as a boxing instructor, as a writer in a newspaper and in magazines. In 1971 I participated in a Conference of Young Writers of the North-West, in Radiy Pogodin's seminar. This is how our friendship began, which lasted until his death in 1993. R. Pogodin was the one who recommended me to the Writers' Association.
   My first book, the novel "Awakening", was published in Leningrad in 1977. The Leningrad Television shot a two-part stage film based on this book, having the same name. My second book, "The Demonstration Fight", was published in Moscow by the "Young Guard" ("Molodaya Gvardiya") publishing house and awarded a diploma at the N. Ostrovsky National Literary Contest as "the best work about young people".
   In 1983 I became a member of the U.S.S.R. Writers' Association. Since May, 1993 until the present I have been heading the St. Petersburg organization of Russia's Writers' Association.
   In 1997 I was elected corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Letters, in 1998 I became acting member of the Petrovskaya Academy of Arts and Sciences. During the same year I became laureate of the Valentin Pikul Literary Award, created by the International Association of Battle and Sea Writers. In June, 1998 I created and headed the "Literary St. Petersburg" newspaper.

   BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS:
   "Invisible line". Novel. "Friendship" almanach, 1971.
   "Awakening". Novel. 174 pages. Leningrad. "Children's Literature" publishers, 1977.
   "The Demonstration Fight". Novel. 175 pages. Moscow. "Young Guard", 1980.
   "I Remain in the Shelter". Novel. 139 pages. Leningrad. "Children's Literature", 1982.
   "All Days of Farewell". Novel. 288 pages. Moscow. "Young Guard", 1984.
   "There Will Be No Victims". Novels. 303 pages. "Lenizdat", 1987.
   "Last Vacation". Novels and short stories. 239 pages. Leningrad. "Children's Literature", 1988.
   "The Great Search". Novel. "Russian World", 1994.
   "Soldier's Wife". Short story. "Russian World", 1995.
   "Don't Cry about Me". Novel. St. Petersburg. "Palmira", 1995.
   "A Man That Never Lived". Novel. St. Petersburg. "Aurora", 1996.
   "The Sentence". Novel and articles. 108 pages. St. Petersburg. "Duma", 1997.
   "Cargo Station". Novel. "Aurora", 1997.

   DRAMA:
   "Awakening". The Leningrad television. Two-part stage film. 1977.
   "Sasha Borodulin". Radio staging. The Leningrad radio. 1980.
   "A Case for Nastenka". Radio play. The Belorussian radio. 1985.
   "To the Station". Radio play. Ibid. 1987.
   "A Candidate for Victory". Radio play. Ibid. 1988.

   CRITICISM:
   S. Filyushkina. "Modern Student. What Is He Like?" "Literary Newspaper", issue 25, 1977.
   A. Akimova, V. Akimov. "Current Literature and Reading Circle". "Children's Literature", issue 5, 1982.
   M. Dudin. "Sinful Rhymes". St. Petersburg. "Continent", 1992.
   A. Korshunov. "In Another Plane". "Naval Newspaper", issues 67, 68, 1997.
   V. Toporov. "On the Site of a Fire". "Literature Day", issue 4, 1997.
   I. Smirnov-Okhtin. "Past Thoughtlessness". "Neva", issue 9, 1987.
   G. Goryshin. "On Authors and on Prose". "Bookstore", issue 1, 1997.
   V. Bondarenko. "The Plebeian Prose of Dovlatov". "Our Contemporary", issue 12, 1997.
   G. Murikov. "After the Sentence". "Literature Day", issue 5, 1997.
   G. Goryshin. "Is There a Leningrad on the Literary Map?" "Literary Russia", issue 75, 1998.
   V. Ganichev. "Literature on the Banks of the Neva". "Literary Russia", issue 24, 1988.
   S. Baluyev. "A Sentence to I. Sabilo". "St. Petersburg University", issue 12, 1989.
   S. Yesin. "Instead of a Review". "Literary St. Petersburg", issue 14, 1999.
   G. Goryshin. "We Remember a Few Things". "Aurora", issues 3-6, 1999.
   N. Pereyaslov. "A Period of Humus Formation". "21st Century Novel Newsletter", issue 67, 1999.

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