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Iskander, Fazil Abdulovich
(1929-
)
brother Yuri Danilovich as Prince of Moscow in
1325. Three years later after assisting in the
GOLDEN HORDE
's destruction of the Principality of
Tver, he obtained the title of grand prince in
recognition of his role as the foremost of all the
Russian princes. Crafty and economical, Ivan
consolidated his position by accumulating Rus-
sian territories and by pleasing the khan of the
Golden Horde through the collection of tribute.
The death of the head of the Russian Church,
Metropolitan Petr, while on a visit to Moscow
provided Ivan with an opportunity to increase
Moscow's influence, when Petr was later canon-
ized and his shrine became a place of worship.
Ivan convinced his successor, Metropolitan
Theognost, to transfer the seat of the Russian
Orthodox Church from Vladimir to Moscow,
thus adding spiritual leadership to the substan-
tial financial and political power that the princi-
pality now enjoyed. Ivan was succeeded by his
son, Simeon the Proud, who continued the work
of enlarging Moscow's domains and influence.
writer
An Abkhazian who writes in Russian, Iskander
was born in the Black Sea port of Sukhumi. He
graduated from the prestigious Gorky Literary
Institute in Moscow in 1954. He first came to
wider prominence in 1966 with the publication
of
The Goatibex Constellation.
The novel, a satire on
the crackpot Michurinist and Lysenkoist theories
of genetics that had gained currency under
KHRUSHCHEV
, features bureaucrats who try to
crossbreed an ordinary goat with an ibex, hoping
to solve the Soviet Union's perennial food short-
ages. Iskander's distinctive blend of simple plots
and a witty conversational style that cloaks
strongly satirical stories came into sharper focus
in subsequent works. In
The Thirteenth Labor of
Hercules
(1978), he comments on the virtues of
humor and the dangers of humorlessness through
a parable about the last Roman emperors. Recog-
nized as a subtle critic of the late-
BREZHNEV
Soviet
system, with his next two books he crossed the
line between acceptable and unacceptable criti-
cism.
Sandro of Chegem
(1983) and
The Gospel
According to Chegem
(1984) are now considered
Iskander's major works, but although quickly
translated into English, they were not published
in full in the Soviet Union until the
GORBACHEV
era. Featuring Uncle Sandro as the main charac-
ter, Iskander recreates the history of his Abk-
hazian village from the 1880s to the 1960s.
Through the words of Sandro, an independent
and irreverent narrator, Iskander comments gen-
tly but incisively on modernization, the Soviet
experience, and, of course,
STALIN
.
Ivan II
(1326-1359)
grand prince
Grand prince of Moscow from 1353-59, Ivan
was the third son of
IVAN I
, also known as Ivan
Kalita, who had greatly increased the status of
the principality of Moscow in relation to other
Russian states. Ivan succeeded his older brother
Simeon the Proud, who had enlarged the terri-
tory of Moscow, but died from the plague at the
early age of 36. Compared to his brother, Ivan
was seen as a weak ruler and was known as Ivan
the Meek. During his reign, Ivan relied signifi-
cantly on the metropolitan of Moscow,
ALEKSEI
,
a remarkable ecclesiastical and political leader
who was later canonized by the Russian Ortho-
dox Church. Ivan's reign witnessed an important
long-term change in the region's balance of
power involving the
GOLDEN HORDE
, Moscow,
and Lithuania. Beginning in 1357 the Golden
Horde, which had ruled over the Russian princi-
palities for more than a century, began to frag-
Ivan I
(1301-1340)
(Ivan Danilovich)
ruler
Known as Ivan Kalita (Moneybags) for his abil-
ity to increase his influence with the Mongol
court through lavish payment of tribute, Ivan I
was instrumental in making Moscow the preem-
inent Russian principality. Ivan succeeded his
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