Nina Semyonovna Katerli, married name Efros; June 30, 1934, Leningrad — November 20, 2023, St. Petersburg — Russian writer, publicist, human rights activist, author of 15 books of prose and journalism.

Biography

Born in Leningrad into a family of writers. Mother — Elena Iosifovna Katerli (real name Kondakova, 1902-1958), prose writer and journalist. Father — Solomon Shmulevich (Semyon Samoilovich) Farfel (pseudonym «F. Samoilov», 1907-1985), documentary writer, participant in the Great Patriotic War, lieutenant colonel, war correspondent for the newspaper «On Guard for the Motherland» of the Leningrad Front, holder of the Order of the Red Star. Grandfather — Samuil Grigorievich Farfel (1877-1927), journalist, employee of the cadet newspaper «Rech».

In 1958, she graduated from the Lensovet Technological Institute and worked as a chemical engineer at the research institute until 1976, after which she left the engineering profession and devoted herself entirely to literature. Nina Katerli is the author of 15 books of prose and journalism. Some of her works have been translated into foreign languages ​​​​and published abroad: in the USA, France, Germany, Japan, China, Hungary, the Czech Republic and other countries.

Laureate of the PEN Club of St. Petersburg «For Civic and Creative Courage» award (1996) and the House of Books and PEN Club of St. Petersburg «Honor and Freedom» award in the «Publicism» nomination for the book «Claim» (1999).

Lived in St. Petersburg. She died on November 20, 2023, at the age of 90. The farewell ceremony took place on November 25 in the Great Hall of the Crematorium.

Creativity

N. Katerli wrote her first stories in the early seventies, starting with feuilletons that were published in the newspaper «Evening Leningrad» and stories about her wartime childhood, published in the magazine «Koster» (first published in 1973, the story «Welcome»).

One of the first, along with Alexander Zhitinsky, to appear in the genre of fantastic realism. In 1976, the magazine «Neva» published the first three fantastic stories by Nina Katerli: «Nagornaya, Ten», «Unrequited Love» and «Okho-Ho».

The first book, a collection of stories called “Window”, was published in 1981 by the Leningrad publishing house “Soviet Writer”.

In the same year, N. Katerli’s story “Barsukova’s Triangle” was published in the American almanac “Glagol”. In the early 1980s, another story of hers, “Chervets”, was distributed in samizdat, where the absurd existence of a Soviet research institute was depicted in a semi-fantastic form, and the Jewish question, which was forbidden at that time, was also touched upon. All this, along with foreign publications, led to problems for the author, including a “conversation” with KGB officer Pavel Koshelev. This story is described in the story “Second Life”, which was included in the book of memoirs “What We Were Witnesses”.

In 1990, based on Nina Katerli’s fantasy story «The Monster», a short animated film of the same name was shot at the Sverdlovsktelefilm studio, directed and designed by E. Nitylkina.

By the 1990s, Nina Katerli moved on to psychological prose. Her stories «Heat in the North», «Kurzal», «Red Hat», «Diary of a Broken Doll», and many other stories and stories were written in this genre. At the same time, Nina Katerli does not move away from fantastic realism and social satire. Already in the 2000s, she created a series of fairy tale pamphlets about the «Best City» and a fantasy story «The Tale of the Gromushkins», which were included in her book «The Magic Lamp», published by Gelikon Plus in 2009.

In 2014, the Gelikon Plus publishing house released the book «The Land of Troubles». The new collection included prose written in the seventies and eighties: three stories: «Barsukov’s Triangle», «Chervets» and «Kostylev», as well as several short stories. The story «Kostylev», written in 1983, had not been published before.

Social and human rights activities

Along with literary work, human rights activities occupy a large place in Nina Katerli’s life. She has written and published dozens of newspaper articles devoted to the struggle for human rights, the Nazi threat in Russia, and social and cultural problems of our time.

Katerli’s human rights activities are the subject of her documentary books “The Lawsuit” and “The Nikitin Case. Strategy of Victory”, as well as a collection of journalistic articles from 1988-2010 “Do What You Must, and Come What May”.

The book “The Lawsuit” is dedicated to the two-year trial of Alexander Romanenko, the author of the book “On the Class Essence of Zionism” (Leningrad, 1976), whom Katerli accused of anti-Semitism and Nazism. The reason for the lawsuit was Katerli’s article “The Road to Monuments”, published on October 9, 1988 in the newspaper “Leningradskaya Pravda”. The trial ended in 1990 with Romanenko’s withdrawal of the lawsuit.

The book «The Nikitin Case. Strategy of Victory» was co-authored with ecologist Alexander Nikitin. The trial of ecologist A. Nikitin attracted the attention of the Russian and international public for several years — from 1996 to 2001. The naval officer, accused of treason, was eventually acquitted. The book includes Nikitin’s own story and the memoirs of his lawyer Yuri Markovich Schmidt.

Until her last days, Nina Katerli continued her public activities as a member of the St. Petersburg PEN Club and the Free Word Association, a human rights association of writers, journalists, translators, editors, publishers from Russia and other countries who write in Russian, and the St. Petersburg Human Rights Council.

Her signature is under numerous appeals and open letters from the Russian intelligentsia in defense of political prisoners and against human rights violations in Russia.

Family

Husband (second marriage) — Mikhail Grigorievich Efros (1933-2000), engineer, specialist in abrasive tools, author of dozens of inventions patented in the USSR, in Russia and abroad.
Daughter — Elena Mikhailovna Efros (born 1959), philologist, journalist, human rights activist, translator.
Granddaughters (born 1985) — Evgenia Borisovna Berkovich, theater director and playwright; Maria Berkovich — teacher of the deaf and writer.
Son — Alexander Mikhailovich Efros (born 1954), entrepreneur.

Books

N. Katerli. Window, a collection of stories. — Leningrad: Sovetsky pisatel, 1981.
N. Katerli. Colored postcards, stories and stories. — Leningrad: Soviet writer, 1986. N. Katerli. Kurhaus, stories and novellas. — Leningrad: Soviet writer, 1990. N. Katerli. Sennaya Square, stories and tales. — St. Petersburg: Pozisoft, 1992. N. Katerli. Lawsuit, documentary story. — Samara: Samara Publishing House, 1998. N. Katerli. That world, stories. — St. Petersburg: Neva, Olma-Press, 2000. N. Katerli. The Red Hat, a story. — Moscow: AST, 2001. N. Katerli. By the hand of a master, a collection of stories. — St. Petersburg: Zvezda magazine, 2001. N. Katerli, A. Nikitin. The Nikitin case. — Saint Petersburg: Zvezda magazine, 2001.
N. Katerli. Diary of a Broken Doll. — Saint Petersburg: Azbuka, 2003.
N. Katerli. Diary of a Broken Doll. — Moscow: AST, 2006.
N. Katerli, L. Miklashevskaya. What We Were Witnesses. Women’s Fates. 20th Century. — Saint Petersburg: Zvezda magazine, 2007.
N. Katerli. The Magic Lamp, a collection of stories. — Saint Petersburg: Helikon Plus, 2009.
N. Katerli. Do What You Must, and Come What May, a collection of articles. — Saint Petersburg: Nestor-History, 2010.
N. Katerli. The Land of Troubles, stories and novellas. — Saint Petersburg: Helikon Plus, 2014.