On January 27, my friend, the wonderful Kalmyk writer Oleg Mandzhiev, passed away. In 2019, Oleg celebrated his 70th birthday. How inexorably time moves, how unexpectedly friends go to where there is no return!The editor’s note: Oleg Mandzhiev, son of the Hero of the Soviet Union L. Mandzhiev was born in Novosibirsk on January 12, 1949. He graduated from the Literary Institute named after Gorky and the Higher Courses for Scriptwriters and Directors in Moscow. He is the author of "The Adventures of Elzyatka in the Mouse State", "Amulanga", "The Boy with Bows", "One Dun Road", "Always Return", "We Walk Through the City", "Heavenly Spring" and "Hell Number Seven ".
Films based on his scripts were staged at the Turkmenfilm, Kazakhfilm and Mosfilm film studios, and at the Riga and Sverdlovsk film studios. He was the member of the Writers' Union and the Union of Cinematographers. He was the honoured Artist of Kalmykia.
He was the laureate of the Crystal Film Festival for the script for the film "Fortune-Telling with a Rosary and a Sheep's Shoulder Blade" by director Ada Neretnietse. He also was laureate of the State Prize of the Kalmyk ASSR named after O. Gorodovikov.
