Veniamin Kaverin

Veniamin Alexandrovich Kaverin (Russian: Вениамин Александрович Каверин; real name – Вениамин Абелевич Зильбер, or Veniamin Abelevich Zilber)(April 19 [O.S. April 6] 1902, Pskov – May 2, 1989, Moscow) was a Soviet writer associated with the early 1920s movement of the Serapion Brothers.

Kaverin was born in a family of kapellmeister of the 96th Infantry Regiment out of Omsk, Abel Abramovich Zilber and his wife Hana Girshevna Desson who owned a chain of music stores. His older sister, Leia Abelevna Zilber, married Yury Tynyanov who was a classmate of the Kaverin's older brother Lev Zilber.

Kaverin studied at the Pskov Governorate Gymnasium and in 1923 graduated the Leningrad Institute of Live Oriental Languages, specializing in Arabic. In 1924 he also graduated the history and philology faculty Leningrad State University. During that time was close with the OPOJAZ members. Kaverin also married the younger sister of Yury Tynyanov, Lidia and had two children Natalia and Nikolay.