1 January] 1911 – 23 December 1998) was a Soviet and Russian writer, the author of the anti-Stalinist Children of the Arbat trilogy, the novel Heavy Sand, and many popular children books including Adventures of Krosh, Dirk and Bronze Bird.
In 1950, he published the novel Drivers (Водители), then in 1979, the novel Heavy Sand (Тяжёлый Песок) about the fate of a Jewish family under Nazi occupation.
It is believed that the novel is based on numerous stories collected by Rybakov from people who survived Nazi occupation of Ukraine.
[2] The eventual publication of the novel and its 2 sequels – 1935 and Other Years (Тридцать пятый и другие годы) (Book I of Fear[3]) (1989), Fear (Страх) (Books I and II) (1990) and Dust & Ashes (Прах и пепел) (1994) – were considered a landmark of the nascent glasnost, as the first in the trilogy was one of the earliest publications of previously forbidden anti-Stalin literature.
Marina Goldovskaya, a Russian-born documentary filmmaker, forged a deep friendship with Rybakov after meeting him at the French Consulate in Moscow.