MOSCOW, July 5. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has conveyed his condolences to the relatives of deceased writer Daniil Granin. The text of the telegram is available on the Kremlin’s official web site.
"Daniil Granin was a great thinker, a leading writer and publicist, a person of gigantic spiritual strength and inner dignity. He served his Motherland and the public with devotion and self-sacrifice, and sincerely supported Russia and its future with all his heart. He was a genuine cynosure and an absolute moral guide for people with the most different views," the telegram says.
The president was confident that as the years go by society will realize more and more "what a truly grievous loss this is to Russia’s culture, the country and St. Petersburg, in which Daniil Granin spent his whole life."
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev also posted a Facebook tribute on the passing of the renowned writer. "Daniil Granin - a great writer, publicist and screenwriter - has passed away. A witness to many epochs, Daniil Granin left us true stories of a man and his time. He wrote of such things that are hard to remember and impossible to forget. But the most important thing in Granin’s legacy is that he left his secret of mercy and revealed the sense of such important issues as conscience and humanism," Medvedev wrote.
Daniil Granin died on Tuesday, late in the evening, in St. Petersburg, aged 98. He was a Soviet and Russian author, screenwriter, public figure and a Great Patriotic War (WWII) veteran who started his writing career in the 1940’s and received numerous awards and prizes - both domestic and international - for his works.
This year Granin was awarded the state prize "For outstanding achievements in humanitarian activity," by Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 3 in St. Petersburg. Putin particularly noted Granin’s talent and his contribution as a moral guide to many generations.