Daniil Andreyev, the son of
Leonid Andreyev (a Russian writer of the start of the 20th century), had
Maxim Gorky as his godfather. After the infant's mother, Aleksandra Mikhailovna (Veligorskaya) Andreyeva (a great-niece of
Taras Shevchenko), died shortly after childbirth, Leonid Andreyev gave the infant Daniil to his late wife's sister, Elizabeth Mikhailovna Dobrova, to raise. This act had two important consequences: it meant that when Leonid Andreyev, like many other writers and intellectuals, left Russia (he emigrated to the newly independent Finland in December 1917 after the
Bolshevik Revolution), his young son remained behind; it also meant that Daniil was raised in a household that remained deeply religious. Like many of his contemporaries, the boy Daniil had a pronounced literary bent; he began writing poetry and prose in early childhood. He graduated from high school but could not attend university because of his "non-proletarian" background. Supporting himself as a graphic artist, he wrote in his spare time. Daniil Andreyev was conscripted into the
Red Army in 1942. He served as a non-combatant, and during the
Siege of Leningrad of 1941-1944 helped to transport supplies across
Lake Ladoga. After
World War II Andreyev returned to civilian life, but the Soviet authorities arrested him in April 1947, charged him with
anti-Soviet propaganda and preparations to assassinate
Joseph Stalin, and sentenced him to 25 years of imprisonment. He suffered a heart attack in prison in 1954, the first manifestation of the heart condition that would eventually cause his death. In the same year his sentence was reduced to 10 years. He was released on 22 April 1957, already terminally ill. He was officially
rehabilitated on 11 July 1957. in the United States. An English translation of Rose of the World was completed by Daniel H. Shubin in 2015. == Works ==