Alexander Zinoviev dies at 83

MOSCOW - Alexander Zinoviev, a prominent author who was forced to emigrate from the Soviet Union for his satire aimed at the Communist regime, has died, officials said Thursday. He was 83.
Zinoviev died Wednesday, according to Moscow State University. The cause of death wasn't given. Zinoviev first clashed with the Soviet authorities as a student when he was dismissed from the university in 1940 for his criticism of the government. He fought as a combat pilot during World War II and later wrote several books on Communist philosophy. He sharply changed his views and became a fierce critic of communism. Zinoviev's "The Yawning Heights," a satirical description of Soviet society that was published in Switzerland in 1976, led to his ouster from his job at the Academy of Sciences and his dismissal from the Communist Party. Set in an imaginary country called "Ibansk," the book was denounced by his Soviet colleagues and in the Soviet press.
Although Zinoviev had said he hoped to keep his Soviet citizenship while abroad, former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev stripped him of it in September 1978 for behavior "damaging to Soviet prestige."
He emigrated in 1978 to West Germany with his wife and daughter, and was stripped of Soviet citizenship. He wrote a number of other books, such as "Homo Sovietikus" and "Catastroika."
Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev restored Zinoviev's Soviet citizenship in 1990, but Zinoviev remained deeply critical of his reforms and the policy of Russian President Boris Yeltsin after the Soviet collapse. He harshly criticized both Gorbachev and Yeltsin for kowtowing to the West and ruining the country.
Zinoviev also came to regret his own criticism of the Soviet Union, saying he was "aiming at communism but hit Russia."
Zinoviev returned to Russia in 1999, becoming a professor at the Moscow State University.
He will be buried Monday after a ceremony at the university.