Alexander Yakovlevich Yashin (; March 27, 1913 – July 11, 1968) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

writer associated with the

Village Prose Village prose (, or Деревенская литература) was a movement in Soviet literature beginning during the Khrushchev Thaw, which included works that focused on the Soviet rural communities. Some point to the critical essays on col ...

movement.

Biography

Early life

Yashin was born in the northern Russian village of Bludnovo,

Nikolsky Uyezd Nikolsky Uyezd () was one of the subdivisions of the Vologda Governorate of the Russian Empire. It was situated in the southern part of the governorate. Its administrative centre was Nikolsk. In terms of present-day administrative borders, the t ...

Vologda Governorate Vologda Governorate (), also known as the Government of Vologda, was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR, which existed from 1796 until 1929. ...

, to a poor peasant family. He finished a teachers' training college course and spent some time teaching in a village school.Biographical note, Fifty Years of Russian Prose, M.I.T. Press, 1971. His first poems were published in various district newspapers between 1928 and 1929. His first book of poetry came out in 1934 in

Arkhangelsk Arkhangelsk (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina near its mouth into the White Sea. The city spreads for over along the ...

.Introduction to ''A Feast of Rowanberries'', Anthology of Soviet Short Stories, Vol 1, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1976. In the late 1930s he studied at the

Maxim Gorky Literature Institute The Maxim Gorky Literature Institute () is an institution of higher education in Moscow, Russia. It is located at 25 Tverskoy Boulevard in central Moscow. History The institute was founded in 1933 on the initiative of Maxim Gorky, a writer, foun ...

in Moscow where his book of poems, ''The Northern Maiden'', was published in 1938. His long poem, ''Mother'', followed in 1940.

Career

During World War II, Yashin was a naval war correspondent. He served with marine battalions during the

Siege of Leningrad The siege of Leningrad was a Siege, military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the city of Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) in the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front of World War II from 1941 t ...

, with the Volga Fleet at

Stalingrad Volgograd,. geographical renaming, formerly Tsaritsyn. (1589–1925) and Stalingrad. (1925–1961), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. The city lies on the western bank of the Volga, covering an area o ...

, and with the

Black Sea Fleet The Black Sea Fleet () is the Naval fleet, fleet of the Russian Navy in the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov and the Mediterranean Sea. The Black Sea Fleet, along with other Russian ground and air forces on the Crimea, Crimean Peninsula, are subordin ...

. After the war he travelled back to the northern villages of his youth, staying with the builders at new construction sites and with the pioneers developing the virgin lands of

Altay Altai or Altay may refer to: Places *Altai Mountains, in Central and East Asia, a region shared by China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Russia In China *Altay Prefecture (阿勒泰地区), Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China *Altay City (阿勒� ...

. His impressions are reflected in the numerous poetry collections he published in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. He began writing prose in the early 1960s. His best known stories were ''A Feast of Rowanberries'' and ''A Vologda Wedding''. He died in Moscow in 1968.

Awards

* Stalin Prize, 1950, for his poem ''Alena Fomina'' *

Order of the Red Star The Order of the Red Star () was a military decoration of the Soviet Union. It was established by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 6 April 1930 but its statute was only defined in decree of the Presidium of the ...

Awards according to Alexander Yashin article at Ru.Wikipedia.

Notes

English translations

*''Levers'', Fifty Years of Russian Prose, Vol 2, M.I.T. Press, 1971. *''A Feast of Rowanberries'', Anthology of Soviet Short Stories, Vol 1, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1976.

References

1913 births 1968 deaths People from Nikolsky District, Vologda Oblast People from Nikolsky Uyezd Soviet short story writers Soviet poets Russian male poets Soviet male writers Recipients of the Stalin Prize Maxim Gorky Literature Institute alumni {{Russia-writer-stub