Aleksandr Gelman

Alexander Isaakovich Gelman (Russian: Алекса́ндр Исаа́кович Ге́льман; born 25 October 1933 in Donduşeni), original given name Shunya (Russian: Шу́ня), is a Bessarabian-born Soviet and Russian playwright, writer, and screenwriter.

A survivor of the Holocaust during childhood, Gelman became a playwright and screenwriter after working as a newspaper journalist in Leningrad in the 1960s, winning the USSR State Prize in 1976. He has resided in Moscow since 1978.

A supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms, Gelman was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1989 and to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union upon Mikhail Gorbachev's recommendation in 1990, before leaving the Communist Party of the Soviet Union less than a year later.