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Peter Mezhiritsky  (Russian: Пётр Яковлевич Межирицкий), born 12 July 1934 in Kiev, Ukraine. – Russian writer, essayist, author of short stories and novels, known primarily as the author of WWII documentary Reading Marshal Zhukov (Читая маршала Жукова – Chitaya Marshala Zhukova (published in English under the title On the Precipice: Stalin, the Red Army Leadership and the Road to Stalingrad 1931-42), the book Comrade Major (Tovarisch Mayor – Товарищ майор) – a biography of Caesar Kunikov, the father of the Soviet marines, and a novel Longing for London (Toska po Londonu – Тоска по Лондону).

Mezhiritsky received his MS in Mechanical Engineering in Lviv Politechnika and for a few years was completely dedicated to his profession, until he realized, that the USSR with all its industry is heading directly to an abyss. He belonged to Shestidesyatniki (Sixtiers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixtiers ), the movement of Soviet intelligetsia, brought to life by the Thaw (Ottepel')  in the mid 50s to the early 60s, when the Communist Party's cultural and ideological restrictions were partially reversed. His first novel, Scoundrels, perished in the editorial circles. His second novel One-Tenth of the Way was published in 1966 by Neva magazine. The novel depicted a generation of contemporary Soviet Don Quixotes, educated and independent enthusiastic thinkers and truth-seekers, who sincerely believed in possibility of Soviet reforms. The book resonated with the dominating spirit in the country and gained Mezhiritsky a popularity. The following year a movie based on the novel was produced by the studio Belarusfilm. In 1971 the book was translated into Polish and published by Czytelnyk printing house.

Mezhiritsly’s  third novel, In the field of tension (V Pole Napryazheniya – В поле напряжения), was severely criticized, rejected for ideological reasons, and between 1970 and 1975 he managed to publish only his articles. In these articles, which were published by the central Ukrainian newspaper, Mezhiritsky analyzed grim situation in Soviet industry and sought for urgent, immediate reforms.

In mid 70th Mezhiritsky was commercially published in the USSR, quit from Engineering and became a member of the Union of Soviet Writers. But the restoration of the authoritarian regime became a sobering wake-up call for Soviet intellectuals. The ideological pressure was intolerable. Mezhiritsky's views openly collided with the communist ideology. In 1979 he left the Soviet Union at the time, when a number of young and prominent writers escaped from the country.

In USA Mezhiritsky worked in the field of Mechanical Engineering. In 1984 he resumed his writing by starting a novel Longing for London with a central figure of Stalin at the War time in his auxiliary plot. Around the same time he started actively writing articles, short stories and essays to the only American-Russian daily New Russian Word (Новое Русское Слово) and other American-Russian weeklies. Longing for London was finished and published in 1995.

In 1996 Mezhiritsky published a documentary Reading Marshal Zhukov, which sheds light on the sources and the reasons of WWII and offers the unique interpretation of Marshal Zhukov’s memoirs. The book reveals the truth hidden between Zhukov’s script lines and intentionally buried by Soviet censorship and editorship, and invites a fresh look at the key events of the Soviet era. The book was translated into English and edited in UK by Helion and Company in 2012 under the title On the precipice.

Mezhiritsky possesses a distinctive writer’s voice and works in a variety of genres.