life." "For many years Kazakov worked on a translation into Russian of a Kazakh novel devoted to World War I and the Civil War on the Aral Sea [and] some of his own works were published in Kazakhstan." In defiance of the situation in the country, Kazakov produced some of his best stories in the 1970s, which dealt with the merging of two souls, the soul of the newborn and the soul of the poet at the end of his life. "The writer considered simple but important problems of birth and death, suicide and suffering. "Kazakov penetrated the mind of the child and presented his view of the world." The writer's formative years passed under the influence of two major factors: Russian classical literature (in addition to Bunin, Kazakov's early prose bore the imprint of the works of Chekhov and Turgenev) and the Thaw." Kazakov slowly but surely overcame the influence of the classics and developed his own style and voice in his stories and as to the Thaw, it petered out gradually, but Kazakov did not take the road of the dissidents or many of the other "men of the sixties", who vacillated between collaboration with the Soviet regime and fawning on the West." Kazakov died on November 29, 1982 and was buried in Vagankovo Cemetery in Moscow. It has been reported that Kazakov was modest and avoided cheap public relations. In one interview Kazakov summed up his life and world outlook: "We are not great writers, but if we have a serious attitude to our work, then our word will perhaps prompt someone to stop and ponder for at least an hour, for at least a day, the meaning of life. For at least a day! That is so much!" Career Kazakov lived in Moscow but spent a good deal of time traveling along the shores of the White Sea, among the provincial towns along the Oka, and in Central Russian Upland and the wooded areas around them. He also spent periods of time with the fishermen of the Russian North. Several of his stories are set in these regions and enhanced by his experiences of life and nature in them. George Gibian has said that "Kazakov is worthy of note not because of any 'disaffection' or 'dissidence,' but because what he says about his haunting characters set against an impressively captured nature is penetrating, true and beautiful."