Ryazan Governorate
Boris Andreyevich Mozhayev (Борис Андреевич Можаев, June 1, 1923, Pitelino village, Ryazan Governorate - March 2, 1996, Moscow) was a Soviet Russian author, dramatist, script-writer and editor, the USSR State Prize (1989) laureate, best known for his novel "Zhivoy" (Alive, 1966) and the two-part epic "Peasant Men and Women" (Muzhiki i babyi, 1972-1980). Supported by Alexander Tvardovsky and admired by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Mozhayev experienced serious difficulties with publishing his harshly realistic, tinged with bitter humour Village prose, dealing with trials and tribulations of the Soviet peasantry in the years of collectivisation and beyond.