"The Fiery Abba" Alexander Poliakov, Literature 2005-11-05

Excerpts from contemporary Orthodox author and journalist Alexander Poliakov's book, "The Fiery Abba." The book recounts the feats of life accomplished by a Russian count of mixed British and Swedish descent, Edouard Seevers, who later became a Russian Orthodox monk. Edouard Seevers had experienced his full share of hardships but he never once bowed to the odds always driven by his unfailing faith in the Lord.

Poliakov spent his childhood years in a small village in Kazakhstan, where his father worked as a construction engineer, and his mother was a doctor. The family later moved to Gatchina outside Leningrad, now St. Petersburg. It was then and there that Alexander fell in love with literature and started writing his first poems. After school he spent a few years doing metal work and hauling loads before implementing his lifelong dream and entering the Journalism Department of Leningrad University.

Graduating five years later, Alexander Poliakov spent some time traveling across the Soviet Union maturing and honing his reporting skills. His first posting as a professional journalist was the port city of Magadan on the Sea of Okhotsk where he wrote his first stories. In the late 1970ies Alexander moved to Moscow signing up with the authoritative Izvestiya newspaper.

It was much later that Alexander embraced the Orthodox creed and was baptized - a major turnaround that coincided with his work on this, his first major novel.


Read more "The Fiery Abba" at the Voice of Russia website or visit the Mansfield & United Lutheran podcasts to hear this week's sermon from an ELCA Lutheran perspective.