After the war he studied at the Maxim Gorky Literary Institute in Moscow – His work “The Island of Venus” was presented in Greece by Kyveli, while in 1969 it was made into a film with Katina Paxinou as the protagonist
The writer Alexis Parnis (née Sotiris Leonidakis), who was born in 1924 in Piraeus, passed away at the age of 99.
He graduated from the 1st Gymnasium (Ionideio School) in 1942, when Greece was now under Nazi occupation. Even before he was organized in the German Resistance, he hid and saved a Jewish family together with his father. For this act, the Jan Vansen Foundation will later honor both of them with the title “Righteous Among the Nations”.
At the age of 20, Alexis Parnis took part as captain of a reserve Elassi company in the last battle against the Germans in Peristeri (Kolokynthos Bridge, 12/9/1944). In December, he is seriously injured, fighting the English intervention. In the period 1945-1948 he was a political refugee in Rubik and Bulges. He then serves in the Democratic Army as a war correspondent.
From 1949 to 1962 he lived in the USSR and studied at the Maxim Gorky Literary Institute in Moscow. In 1954, he published in the literary magazine “Novi Mir” his great epic poem “Belogiannis”, for which the following year he was awarded the First Prize for Poetry at the Warsaw Festival. The jury that awards him consists of Pablo Neruda (chairman), Nazim Hikmet, Nicolas Guillien, Waris Ivens and others.
His name is included in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia. In 1960, his play “The Island of Venus” was staged at the “Mali Theater” in Moscow, which for two years was performed in 175 theaters of the USSR and the rest of the People’s Republics. In 1963 it was also presented in Greece from Kyveli at KTHBE, while in 1969 it was made into a film with Katina Paxinou as the protagonist. In 1966, having now repatriated, Alexis Parnis presented the satirical novel “The Fixer”. The work was translated into English in 1981 and the critic Thomas Hyde wrote in the Saturday Telegraph: “The Fixer should be required reading for all rebels on Earth.”
In 1967, his drama “Pasternak Avenue” was staged at the O’Neill Theater in the Massachusetts Playhouse. Reviews of the play, the director and the actors are laudatory. A few years later, “Leoforos Pasternak” is also published in a novel version.
His other works: “A Prague for Everyone”, “The Cinematographer”, “The Mafioso”, “The Odyssey of the Twins” (novels), “Seed of Hope” (novels), “Wings of Icarus”, “White Spot”, ” Open Account” (theatrical).
Source: Skai
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