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Исаев / Штирлиц #4
Испанский вариант
Юлиан Семенов (1931–1993) – знаменитый советский писатель, чья жизнь, к сожалению, оборвалась очень рано: Юлиану Семенову был всего 61 год, когда его не стало; но в Советском Союзе не было людей – да и в сегодняшней России вряд ли они найдутся, – которые бы не знали, а главное, не любили бы его книги и снятые по ним фильмы. По-настоящему народный писатель подарил нам "Майора Вихря", "Семнадцать мгновений весны", "Противостояние", "Огарева, 6" и многие другие замечательные произведения.
197 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1973
10 people want to read
About the author
Yulian Semyonov
84 books32 followersYulian Semyonovich Semyonov (Russian: Юлиа́н Семёнович Семёнов, pen-name of Yulian Semyonovich Lyandres (Russian: Ля́ндрес) was a Soviet and Russian writer of spy fiction and detective fiction, also scriptwriter and poet.
The father of Semyonov was Jewish, the editor of the newspaper “Izvestia”, Semyon Alexandrovich Lyandres. In 1952 he was arrested as "an accomplice of the Bukharin counterrevolutionary conspiracy" and severely beaten during the interrogations; he became partially paralyzed as the result. His mother was Russian, Galina Nikolaevna Nozdrina, a history teacher.
His wife Ekaterina Sergeevna was a step-daughter of Sergey Vladimirovich Mikhalkov (the wedding took place on 12 April 1955). Though their family life was quite complicated, Ekaterina Sergeevna devotedly kept looking after her husband after the stroke which happened to him in 1990.
They had two daughters – Daria and Olga. The elder one, Daria, is an artist, and the younger, Olga Semyonova, is a journalist and a writer, an author of the autobiographical books about her father.
In 1953 Semyonov graduated from Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies, the Middle-East department. Then he taught the Afghan language (Pashto) in Moscow State University and simultaneously studied there in the faculty of history.
After gaining a degree of an interpreter in the University, Semyonov had diplomatic business in East Asia countries, continuing at the same time his scientific studies in Moscow State University (specializing in Persian history and politics).
Since 1955 he started to try his hand in journalism: he was published in key Soviet newspapers and magazines of that time: “Ogoniok”, “Pravda”, “Literaturnaya Gazeta”, “Komsomolskaya Pravda”, “Smena” etc.
In 1960s – 1970s Semyonov worked abroad a lot as a reporter of the said editions (in France, Spain, Germany, Cuba, Japan, the USA, Latin America). His journalist activity was full of adventures, often dangerous ones – at the moment he was in the taiga with tiger hunters, or at the polar station, at the next he was at the Baikal-Amur Mainline construction and diamond pipe opening. He was constantly in the centre of the important politic events of those years – in Afghanistan, Francoist Spain, Chile, Cuba, Paraguay, tracing the Nazi, who sought cover from punishment, and Sicilian mafia leaders; taking part in the combatant operations of the Vietnamese and Laotian partisans.
Semyonov was one of the pioneers of “Investigative journalism” in the Soviet periodicals. Thus, in 1974 in Madrid he managed to interview a Nazi criminal, the favourite of Hitler Otto Skorzeny, who categorically refused to meet any journalist before. Then, being the “Literaturnaya Gazeta” newspaper correspondent in Germany, the writer succeeds in interviewing the reichsminister Albert Speer and one of the SS leaders Karl Wolff.
The conversations with such people, as well as holding the investigation regarding the searches for the Amber Room and other cultural values moved abroad from Russia during World War II were published by Semyonov in his documentary story “Face to Face” in 1983.
In 1986 Semyonov became the President of the International Association of Detective and Political Novel (Russian: МАДПР), which he himself initiated to create, and the editor-in-chief of the collected stories edition “Detective and Politics” (the edition was published by the said Association together with the Press Agency “Novosti” and played an important role in popularization of the detective genre in the USSR.
Semyonov’s participation in searching for the famous Amber Room together with Georges Simenon, James Aldridge, baron von Falz-Fein and other famous members of the International Amber Room Searching Committee achieved wide renown.
Yulian Semyonov and his friends, Andrei Mironov (right) and Lev Durov (Crimea, date unknown)
Semyonov, together with baron Eduard von Falz-Fein, a Russian aristocrat and first wave émig
The father of Semyonov was Jewish, the editor of the newspaper “Izvestia”, Semyon Alexandrovich Lyandres. In 1952 he was arrested as "an accomplice of the Bukharin counterrevolutionary conspiracy" and severely beaten during the interrogations; he became partially paralyzed as the result. His mother was Russian, Galina Nikolaevna Nozdrina, a history teacher.
His wife Ekaterina Sergeevna was a step-daughter of Sergey Vladimirovich Mikhalkov (the wedding took place on 12 April 1955). Though their family life was quite complicated, Ekaterina Sergeevna devotedly kept looking after her husband after the stroke which happened to him in 1990.
They had two daughters – Daria and Olga. The elder one, Daria, is an artist, and the younger, Olga Semyonova, is a journalist and a writer, an author of the autobiographical books about her father.
In 1953 Semyonov graduated from Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies, the Middle-East department. Then he taught the Afghan language (Pashto) in Moscow State University and simultaneously studied there in the faculty of history.
After gaining a degree of an interpreter in the University, Semyonov had diplomatic business in East Asia countries, continuing at the same time his scientific studies in Moscow State University (specializing in Persian history and politics).
Since 1955 he started to try his hand in journalism: he was published in key Soviet newspapers and magazines of that time: “Ogoniok”, “Pravda”, “Literaturnaya Gazeta”, “Komsomolskaya Pravda”, “Smena” etc.
In 1960s – 1970s Semyonov worked abroad a lot as a reporter of the said editions (in France, Spain, Germany, Cuba, Japan, the USA, Latin America). His journalist activity was full of adventures, often dangerous ones – at the moment he was in the taiga with tiger hunters, or at the polar station, at the next he was at the Baikal-Amur Mainline construction and diamond pipe opening. He was constantly in the centre of the important politic events of those years – in Afghanistan, Francoist Spain, Chile, Cuba, Paraguay, tracing the Nazi, who sought cover from punishment, and Sicilian mafia leaders; taking part in the combatant operations of the Vietnamese and Laotian partisans.
Semyonov was one of the pioneers of “Investigative journalism” in the Soviet periodicals. Thus, in 1974 in Madrid he managed to interview a Nazi criminal, the favourite of Hitler Otto Skorzeny, who categorically refused to meet any journalist before. Then, being the “Literaturnaya Gazeta” newspaper correspondent in Germany, the writer succeeds in interviewing the reichsminister Albert Speer and one of the SS leaders Karl Wolff.
The conversations with such people, as well as holding the investigation regarding the searches for the Amber Room and other cultural values moved abroad from Russia during World War II were published by Semyonov in his documentary story “Face to Face” in 1983.
In 1986 Semyonov became the President of the International Association of Detective and Political Novel (Russian: МАДПР), which he himself initiated to create, and the editor-in-chief of the collected stories edition “Detective and Politics” (the edition was published by the said Association together with the Press Agency “Novosti” and played an important role in popularization of the detective genre in the USSR.
Semyonov’s participation in searching for the famous Amber Room together with Georges Simenon, James Aldridge, baron von Falz-Fein and other famous members of the International Amber Room Searching Committee achieved wide renown.
Yulian Semyonov and his friends, Andrei Mironov (right) and Lev Durov (Crimea, date unknown)
Semyonov, together with baron Eduard von Falz-Fein, a Russian aristocrat and first wave émig
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 26, 2025
Во время гражданской войны в Испании немцы похищают латышского журналиста, которого подозревает в причастности к краже чертежей нового мессершмитта. Штирлиц пытается его вытащить, не выдав себя.
Четвёртая книга стала заметным шагом вперёд. Наконец-то автор не позволил своей фабуле растечься амебой по учебнику истории, намертво прибив её гвоздями к конкретному событию, что дало чёткие цели и ставки для персонажей. Его же любимая псевдоисторическая галиматья очень грамотно запихана по флешбекам, прерывающим действие через каждую главу. И хотя сами эти воспоминания не особо интересны и большую часть можно было бы вырезать, по крайней мере появление кучи ненужных действующих лиц, в этот раз получилось мотивированным и подчиненным логике сюжета, что просто огромный плюс, поскольку ставшего уже привычным для писателя ощущения полного хаоса тут нет. Будто читаешь нормальную книгу.
К сожалению главный герой Пальме и весь кусок связанный с его прошлым совершенно не увлекает, и ощущается он клоном Исаева, только в другом парике, но хоть Штирлиц, вынужденно играющий за две команды, оказавшись наконец второй ключевой фигурой, а не бедным родственником с краешку, получает долгожданную возможность продемонстрировать как он хорош в профессии.
Другая сильная сторона "Испанского варианта" - значительно меньший по сравнению с другими романами объём, от чего и темп куда выше. И пусть Семенову не удаётся держать его равномерно, жонглируя ботинками со шприцами, пытками в гестапо и плачущим над оленёнком Гейдрихом, финиширует он непривычно хорошо с изобретательной и ловкой финальной операцией спасения.
В целом конечно не блестящее, но достаточно крепкое произведение, одно из самых энергичных в цикле, формат которого наиболее удачно подошёл под материал.
Четвёртая книга стала заметным шагом вперёд. Наконец-то автор не позволил своей фабуле растечься амебой по учебнику истории, намертво прибив её гвоздями к конкретному событию, что дало чёткие цели и ставки для персонажей. Его же любимая псевдоисторическая галиматья очень грамотно запихана по флешбекам, прерывающим действие через каждую главу. И хотя сами эти воспоминания не особо интересны и большую часть можно было бы вырезать, по крайней мере появление кучи ненужных действующих лиц, в этот раз получилось мотивированным и подчиненным логике сюжета, что просто огромный плюс, поскольку ставшего уже привычным для писателя ощущения полного хаоса тут нет. Будто читаешь нормальную книгу.
К сожалению главный герой Пальме и весь кусок связанный с его прошлым совершенно не увлекает, и ощущается он клоном Исаева, только в другом парике, но хоть Штирлиц, вынужденно играющий за две команды, оказавшись наконец второй ключевой фигурой, а не бедным родственником с краешку, получает долгожданную возможность продемонстрировать как он хорош в профессии.
Другая сильная сторона "Испанского варианта" - значительно меньший по сравнению с другими романами объём, от чего и темп куда выше. И пусть Семенову не удаётся держать его равномерно, жонглируя ботинками со шприцами, пытками в гестапо и плачущим над оленёнком Гейдрихом, финиширует он непривычно хорошо с изобретательной и ловкой финальной операцией спасения.
В целом конечно не блестящее, но достаточно крепкое произведение, одно из самых энергичных в цикле, формат которого наиболее удачно подошёл под материал.
Displaying 1 of 1 review