Daniil Andreyev was born in Germany on November 2, 1906. He spent his childhood in Moscow and was raised by relatives of his mother, who died during childbirth. In the 1920s, under the Soviet power, Daniil being the son of a “nonproletarian” was banned from entering a university and instead continuously studied at the Higher Literary Courses and took up writing poetry and prose. Aware of the discrepancy between his writing and soviet propaganda, he became a graphic artist, but kept up his literary creativity.

 

In 1942 he was called up for military service, but because of his health condition was a non combatant private. He served in the 196th shooting division, in a burying party, and then as an aidman in a medical battalion.  

 

After the war he worked in Moscow. On April 21, 1947 Daniil Andreyev with his wife and some relatives were arrested by the KGB on charge of anti-Soviet propaganda, organizing an anti-Soviet group and setting up attempt on Stalin’s life. His very first novel Wanderers in the Night was used as the main “evidence” of his alleged crime and along with his other works burned down upon completion of the investigation. 

 

Thanks to temporary abolition of the death penalty in the year of his arrest the writer was sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment, which was extreme penalty at that time. His wife was sentenced to 25 years in a labor camp. It was in prison where he wrote drafts of his famous The Rose of the World, as well as the book of poetry Russian Gods and the Iron Mystery verse play. 

 

After the death of Stalin cases of political prisoners were reviewed and thus in 1954 Daniil Andreyev’s term was shortened to 10 years. In April, 1957 Daniil Andreyev was released to his wife already waiting for him. His health was seriously damaged in prison, especially by a heart attack he had suffered in 1954. Fortunately, his wife Alla Andreyeva managed to get his manuscripts from prison after his release and Daniil spent the last two years of his life on completing those works, including his unprecedented legacy of The Rose of the World. The Metaphilosophy of History uniting religions of the world. His other works convey similar ideas and revelations of this incomparable mystic.

 

Daniil Andreyev died in Moscow on March 30, 1959. Alla Andreyeva was aware that his spiritual and cultural heritage would be banned by Soviet authorities and so harbored the books safely. In the 1970s the books finally became accessible to a number of people by means of samizdat (dissident underground press). After Perestroika some parts of The Rose of the World were published in the Novy Mir magazine and then the complete book was published in 1991. The book was a great success, with 100,000 copies sold out fast, and a number of editions followed. The Rose of the World as well as his other works met the thirst for spirituality in Russian society. The Daniil Andreyev Foundation was established in 1992 and his followers joined together in numerous small groups of kindred spirit.