Zonin, Alexander Ilyich

Born in Elizabethgrad in a Jewish family. Father was a photographer. He graduated from a commercial school in the same place. Until 1917 he was a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party , a decist . Member of the CPSU (b) in 1919-1935 (expelled). During the Civil War, the commissar of the regiment, the editor of the army newspaper and the political enlightenment of the 16th Army. He was seriously wounded near Novgorod-Seversky . For participation in the suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner (1921).

He worked as the head of the press department of the PUR (political administration) of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic, the editor-in-chief of the journal Political Worker (later the Communist of the Armed Forces) and the republican newspaper Turkestan Pravda in Tashkent (1922-1923), and since 1923 he was the head of the military department of the magazine Young Guard ", Deputy editor of the magazine" October ", head of the press department of the Leningrad City Party Committee, editor of the magazine" Star "(1927). ^[2] He was a member of the October and At the Post groups (At the Litpost, 1923), the RAAP , then the Litfront and the LOKAF (Literary Association of the Red Army and Navy, 1930). ^[3] In 1929 he graduated from the literary department of the Institute of the Red Professor , was the deputy director of the institute, in 1929-1930 he also headed the literary department and led the section of the literary and journalistic genres of the State Institute of Journalism, then until 1934 at party work in the Far East (where he was expelled "for opposition to the leadership of the literary movement in the country"). ^{[4] [5] [6]} He was treated for a mental illness and received a disability. In the late 1930s, he moved with his son to Leningrad. He served on the cruiser "Red Caucasus". ^[7]

Member of the Soviet-Finnish War (1939-1940) and the Great Patriotic War . He received the military rank of captain of the 3rd rank. In 1942, he took part in the campaign of the L-3 submarine Kronstadt - the southern part of the Baltic Sea - Kronstadt under the command of P. D. Grishchenko (described in the posthumous travel diaries of the writer, 1975). For this campaign he was awarded the second Order of the Red Banner. Until 1943 he was a member of the operational group of writers at the Political Administration of the Baltic Fleet, then at the Political Administration of the Northern Fleet, he was a war correspondent for the newspaper Red Fleet. He was awarded the orders of World War II degree and the Red Star , medals.

From 1923 he was engaged in literary criticism, in 1930 he made his debut in fiction. Author of the novels “The Life of Admiral Nakhimov”, “On the Right Course” and “Sea Brotherhood”, documentary stories about the navy “Captain Diana” about the navigator V. M. Golovnin , “Spring Started in March”, collections of short stories on the military historical and historical-biographical themes, biographies of admirals S. O. Makarov , P. S. Nakhimov , F. F. Ushakov , captain P. D. Grishchenko .

Arrested on April 16, 1949 on charges of Trotskyism , cosmopolitanism and counter-revolutionary propaganda, on February 4, 1950, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison (he served in Dzhezkazgan and was released in 1955 ). ^[8] By decision of the Central Commission for the Review of Cases of Persons Sentenced for Counter-Revolutionary Crimes of April 25–26, 1955, the criminal case against A. Zonin was dismissed due to the insufficiency of the charges. The urn with its ashes was buried in the waters of the Barents Sea on May 31, 1962 .

• At the origins of proletarian literature. - L .: Surf, 1927.
• For proletarian realism. - L .: Surf, 1928.
• Images and Reality: A Collection of Articles. - M .: Moscow Worker, 1930.
• Captain "Diana": A historical tale. - M. - L. , 1939.
• Admiral Nakhimov. - M. - L. , 1940.
• Education of a sailor: The first book about the life of Admiral S. O. Makarov. - M .: Voenmorizdat, 1942.
• Hike submarine under the command of the captain of the 2nd rank Grishchenko. - L. , 1942.
• Two thousand miles under water. - M. - L .: Voenmorizdat, 1944.
• Fedor Fedorovich Ushakov. - M .: Young Guard, 1944.
• Admiral Nakhimov. - M. - L., 1944.
• Sea Brotherhood: A Novel. - M. - L. , 1945 (a number of reprints).
• Captain of "Diana." - M., 1946.
• Guards destroyer "Thundering". - M. , 1947.
• Life goes on. - M., 1947.
• Light on board: A Tale. - L. , 1948 and M. , 1949.
• The life of Admiral Nakhimov; Novel. - L .: Soviet writer, 1956.
• On the right track. - M. , 1960 and 1962.
• Sea Brotherhood: A Tale. - M. , 1963.
• Salty Years: Diaries and Stories. - M. , 1967.
• Sea Brotherhood: Tales, Diary. - M. , 1975.

• After the first marriage broke up, the wife was repressed.
  • Daughter - Lenina Alexandrovna Zonina (1922, Tashkent - 1985, Moscow), literary critic and translator of French prose.
  • Son - writer Sergey Alexandrovich Zonin (born 1929), captain of the second rank, author of books on the navy.
• Second wife (since 1942 ) - writer Vera Kazimirovna Ketlinskaya .
  • Son - Sergey A. Ketlinsky (born 1940), doctor of medical sciences, professor, corresponding member of RAMS (son of E. A. Kibrik , adopted by A. I. Zonin).
  • Son - teacher, candidate of chemical sciences Vladimir Alexandrovich Ketlinsky (original surname Zonin , born 1944).

• Order of the Red Banner (1921) - for participating in the suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion
• Order of the Red Star (09.22.1942) - for a trip to the submarine L-3 ^[9]
• Order of the Patriotic War II degree (07/23/1944) - for participating in the attack of torpedo boats on an enemy convoy and the sinking of 7 enemy ships ^[10]