Gorenstein was born in a family of
Ukrainian Jews: his father, Naum Isaevich Gorenstein (1902—1937), was a professor of political economy. His mother, Enna Abramovna Prilutskaya, was an educator. During the
Stalinist repressions, his father was arrested in 1935 and sent to
GULAG. He was shot in 1937 after trying to escape. After the arrest of his father, his mother changed Friedrich’s name to (Felix Prilutsky). He later regained his original name. His mother was the director of a home for juvenile offenders in
Berdichev, Ukraine. During the Nazi invasion of 1941, he and his mother were evacuated to
Orenburg in the Urals. His mother died of
tuberculosis in 1943 in Orenburg. Friedrich was placed in an orphanage. After the war, he was raised by his aunts, Zloty and Rachel, in Berdichev. Following World War II, Gorenstein struggled as an unskilled worker, until
Nikita Khrushchev's
De-Stalinization allowed him to return to Kiev. Gorenstein moved to
Moscow in 1962 to complete his scenarist course at the State Film University. He began writing screenplays to support himself. Most of his adaptions were censored, but he managed to finish his works, including writing the script for the 1972
science fiction film
Solaris, directed by
Andrei Tarkovsky. His novel
Place was nominated for the 1992
Russian Booker Prize. In 1995 he was a member of the jury at the
19th Moscow International Film Festival. ==Themes==