V. Nekrasov, 76; Prize-Winning Exiled Author

Victor Nekrasov, who won the Stalin prize for literature in 1947 but was forced into in exile in the West in 1974, has died of lung cancer at the age of 76.

Nekrasov died Thursday in Gentilly Hospital outside Paris, sources close to the family said Friday.

Nekrasov won the literature prize for his 1946 book “In the Trenches of Stalingrad.” He fell into disgrace in later years and finally was forced into exile after speaking out against the banishment of fellow writer Alexandr Solzhenitsyn.

Nekrasov’s other works included “The Native Town” (1954), “First Journey” (1958), “Vassia Konakoff” (1960), “A Month in France” (1965), “Distance of 12,000 Kilometers” (1965), “Travels in Different Measurements” (1967), “Life and Letters” (1971), and “Notes of an Idler” (1976).

Born in Kiev, Nekrasov spent his early childhood in France. He returned to Russia shortly before the 1917 revolution, later studying at Kiev’s Institute of Engineering and Architecture. He worked as an actor and set designer in Kiev, Vladivostok, Kirov and Rostov-on-Don. He was an army officer from 1941-44.

Nekrasov first came in for official criticism for his novel “Kira Kira Gerogievna.” He was expelled from the Communist Party in 1963 and the Union of Writers and the Union of Filmmakers in 1974.