Alexander Bek was born on 3 January 1903. The son of a physician employed by the
Imperial Russian Army, Bek received an upbringing in his native city of
Saratov, where he attended a
Realschule. Following the
Russian Revolution of 1917 and the outbreak of the
Russian Civil War between the
Red and
White movements, he joined the
Bolsheviks'
Red Army as a sixteen-year-old volunteer and began contributing articles to the army's divisional newspaper in 1919. His first novel,
Kurako, completed in honor of the outstanding russian metallurgist
Mikhail Kurako and set down following the impressions left on Bek after a visit to the town of
Kuznetsk, was published in 1934. Several other works in the style of
socialist realism were written during the 1930s. Bek returned for duty in the Red Army during
World War II at Moscow as a volunteer in the 3rd Company, 1st Battalion, 24th Regiment of the
8th (Krasnaya Presnya) Volunteer Rifle Division, known as "The Writers' Company". However, before entering combat he was reassigned to serve as a
war correspondent, in which role he witnessed the Soviet
defense of Moscow in 1941. He produced one of his life's most famous works,
Volokolamsk Highway («Волоколамское шоссе»), in 1944, depicting the heroism of
Moscow's defenders. Accordingly,
The New Appointment first appeared in
Frankfurt am Main in 1972. Bek died on 2 November 1972 in Moscow. ==English Translations==