Fadeyev, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich [key], 1901–56, Russian author. An active Communist, he fought in the Revolution of 1917. His first novel, Razgrom (1926, new tr., The Rout, 1957), concerns a group of partisans fighting in Siberia. Fadeyev continued this theme in the lengthy Last of the Udegs (1929–40), an unfinished epic. His novel The Young Guard (1945) describes the underground activities of a group of young Communists during World War II. Criticized, Fadeyev revised it in 1951 to give more prominence to the Communist party. In 1954 he lost his position as secretary of the Union of Soviet Writers. Diminished in status and emotionally and physically impaired by alcoholism, he committed suicide.
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