Lev Razgon
| Lev Razgon | |
|---|---|
| Native name | Лев Эммануилович Разгон |
| Born | Lev Emmanuilovich (Mendelevich) Razgon 1 April 1908 Horki, Horki Raion, Mogilev Governorate, Belarus, Russian Empire |
| Died | 8 September 1999 (aged 91) Moscow, Russia |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Citizenship |
 Russia
|
| Alma mater | Moscow State Pedagogical Institute |
| Notable awards |
 Andrei Sakharov Prize For Writer's Civic Courage |
| Spouse | Oksana Glebovna Bokiy, Rika Efremovna Berg |
Lev Emmanuilovich Razgon (Russian: Лев Эммануи́лович Разго́н, 1 April 1908, Horki, Horki Raion, Mogilev Governorate – 8 September 1999, Moscow) was a Soviet journalist, a prisoner of the Gulag from 1938 to 1942 and again from 1950 to 1955, a Russian writer and, latterly, a human rights activist.
Razgon was born in Belorussia to the family of Mendel Abramovich Razgon and Glika Izrailevna Shapiro. In the 1920s they moved to Moscow and in 1932, he graduated from the history faculty of the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute.
His career before his arrest in 1938 was in great measure due to his marrying into the new Soviet elite and, in particular, two men: his wife Oksana's father Gleb Boky, a high-ranking NKVD officer, and her step-father Ivan Moskvin, a leading figure in the Central Committee.
Later in life, Razgon fell into the category of Gulag detainees who rejoined the Communist Party after their release. He did not resign from the Party until 1988.
After moving to Moscow Razgon met and married Oksana, the daughter of Gleb Boky and step-daughter of Ivan Moskvin, who were influential friends and patrons until their own arrest in 1937.
At Ivan Moskvin's apartment, for instance, Razgon met the future head of the NKVD Nikolai Yezhov. With a pass supplied by Moskvin he attended the 17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), the "1934 Congress of Victors" at which, he reports, Stalin received many more negative votes than Sergei Kirov when the Congress members voted to re-appoint members to the Central Committee.
Razgon's account of these years began to appear in printed form during perestroika, serialised in issues of the Ogonyok weekly. Subsequently, they were published as a book True Stories (Nepridumannoe, 1988), and it was only in a separate and slightly later publication in the Ogonyok library series that Razgon first admitted he had worked for Gleb Boky's organisation.
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