Zakhar Fainburg: “I an unwilling and incapable to live any other way”

Z. Fainburg (1922–1990) is known as the founder of the Perm school of sociology, as one of the pioneers of economic sociology in the Soviet Union, a man who studied culture and science fiction work. Here he is presented as a 20 year old fighting in the Great Patriotic war (GPW), initially as an infantryman and spy, and later as an artilleryman, a master gunner. He was first deployed to Ukraine, and by the end of the war he wound up in Eastern Prussia. The article mainly focuses on extremely valuable historic material in the form of a series of letters written by Fainburg while he was on the front lines, often straight from inside the trenches. His letters captured the spirit of the times, of the battlefield, while at the same time giving us an insight into the life of a soldier who would go on to become one of the most prominent sociologists of the first Soviet/Russian cohort. The material presented contributes to the biographical portrait of a famous sociologist while also helping to preserve the historical memory about the GPW.