Vuktor Yefimovich Zilberman (pseudonym - Ardov) was born on November
21, 1900, in Voronezh, Russia. He was raised in a traditional
Russian-Jewish family. He graduated from the Economy Department of the
Plekhanov Institute in Moscow, in 1925.
Viktor Ardov published his first short stories in 1921. He also was a
talented illustrator and published collections of his short stories
with his own illustrations. He published in total over forty books of
his short stories and plays. His first theatrical play 'Imeninnitsa'
(1924) had a successful run at the Moscow Theatre of Satire. Ardov
wrote the film script for 'Svetly Put' (The Shining Path, 1940
aka..Tanya), starring Lyubov Orlova and directed by Grigoriy Aleksandrov. For this film he
was awarded the State Stalin's Prize and received the award from
Joseph Stalin in 1941.
In 1933 Ardov married actress Nina Antonovna Olshevskaya, and became a
stepfather of her son Aleksey Batalov. Their apartment No.13 on Bolshya Ordynka
was a popular meeting place for important Russian intellectuals, such
as Mikhail A. Bulgakov, Mikhail Zoshchenko, Boris Pasternak Anna Akhmatova, Marina Tsvetaeva, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Joseph Brodsky,
Dmitri Shostakovich, and many others. Ardov collaborated with the famous Russian
comedian Arkady Raykin, for whom he wrote satirical sketches.
Viktor Ardov was a life-long friend of Anna Akhmatova. He wrote about
Akhmatova in his memoirs, "Anna Andreevna lived with us in our home
from 1934-1966, just as much time as she spent in her place in
Leningrad." Ardov and his family comforted Akhmatova and shielded her
from the severe political attacks during the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin.
Anna Akhmatova was one of the last living classics of the Russian literature
at that time. She was reinstated as the member of the Union of the
Soviet Writers in Moscow, upon the recommendations of Viktor Ardov and
his colleagues.
Viktor Ardov died in 1976, in Moscow. His stepson Aleksey Batalov is an actor,
his elder son Boris Ardov is an actor, writer and a cartoon artist, his
junior son Mikhail Ardov is an Orthodox Christian priest in
Moscow.
