Ilia Shtemler

Ilia Shtemler ( _ru. Илья Штемлер; b. January 18, 1933) is a Russian writer. He was born in Baku, graduated from the Baku Industrial Institute in 1957 and then worked as an engineer, first in the oil industry in the Volga region and then on the "Geologorazvedka" factory in St. Petersburg, city which eventually became his second home. Shtemler's novels “Univermag” (“The department store”), “Poezd” (“Train”), “Utrennee shosse” (“Morning highway”) are assertively realistic description of the life in 60s, 70s and 80s Russia. His first novel “Grossmaster’s mark” was published in 1965 in the "Yunost" literary magazine and brought immediate recognition to its author.

Ilia Shtemler first works as an employee in the environment which he later writes about in his prose. Shtemler's writing manner is routed in the tradition of the Russian psychological prose of Nikolai Gogol, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Ilf and Petrov and Daniil Granin. Ilia Shtemler is an active compainer for the protection and careful maintaining of Russian historical heritage.

Some critics compare Shtemler's style with Arthur Hailey's.

As of 2006, Shtemler is vice-president of the St. Petersburg division of the PEN club.

External links

* [http://www.ozon.ru/context/detail/id/269748/ Ilya Shtemler] @ ozon.ru
* [http://magazines.russ.ru/neva/2003/1/uvl.html Article about Ilia Shtemler @ Neva literary magazine]