Sasha Krasny (, literally ''Alexander the Red'') was the pen-name of Aleksandr Davydovich Bryansky (; – 2 March 1995), a

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n poet and songwriter. His first book was published in

Odessa ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...

in 1912 and the last in 1993. His son Boris Bryansky (1928–1972) was also a poet and songwriter.

Biography

Bryansky said he was born in 1882 in

Sevastopol Sevastopol ( ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea and a major port on the Black Sea. Due to its strategic location and the navigability of the city's harbours, Sevastopol has been an important port and naval base th ...

, into a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family. After graduating from

Grekov Odessa Art school The Grekov Odesa Art School (; abbreviated ОХУ) is a secondary education institution in Odesa, Ukraine. It is the oldest arts school in the country. History The Grekov Odesa Art school was founded as a "drawing school" on May 30, 1865. Frede ...

which he entered in 1908, Bryansky performed on stage under the pseudonym of Sasha Krasny. In 1914 he was drafted into Russian Army and fought in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. According to his own account, he was wounded and awarded with a

St. George's Cross In heraldry, Saint George's Cross (or the Cross of Saint George) is a red cross on a white background, which from the Late Middle Ages became associated with Saint George, the military saint, often depicted as a crusader. Associated with th ...

, 4th Degree. After the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

he joined the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

and became one of

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

's bodyguards. Along with fellow Odesite writers such as

Ilya Ilf Ilya Arnoldovich Ilf (born Iehiel-Leyb Aryevich Faynzilberg; ; – 13 April 1937) was a Soviet journalist and writer of Jewish origin who usually worked in collaboration with Yevgeny Petrov during the 1920s and 1930s. Their duo was known simp ...

and Yevgeni Petrov he published his poems in the ''Gudok'' newspaper, a mouthpiece for the Soviet Ministry of Transport. He helped initiate the

agitprop Agitprop (; from , portmanteau of ''agitatsiya'', "agitation" and ''propaganda'', "propaganda") refers to an intentional, vigorous promulgation of ideas. The term originated in the Soviet Union where it referred to popular media, such as literatu ...

movement of "Blue shirts" which took its name from his 1923 collection of poetry, "The Blue Blouse" (Russian: Синяя блуза). In the mid-1920s Krasny led a circle of amateur performers who sought to popularize Bolshevik ideology by touring the country with skits, songs, and recitations of poems. The show was called the Sasha Krasny Theatre and continued well into the 1930s. He also found time to publish several collections of songs. Krasny was not active as a poet from that time until the 1980s. When he joined the

USSR Union of Writers The Union of Soviet Writers, USSR Union of Writers, or Soviet Union of Writers () was a creative union of professional writers in the Soviet Union. It was founded in 1934 on the initiative of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (1932) a ...

in 1984, he was already 102 years old. In his old age he concentrated on love themes. His collection "The Contrasts" appeared in 1990 and "Only About Love" three years later. This last collection of verse was published when he was 111.

Death

Krasny died in 1995 at the claimed age of 112Помним, скорбим/Брянский, Александр Давыдович
/ref> in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

and was buried at the New Donskoy Cemetery there. His

supercentenarian A supercentenarian, sometimes hyphenated as super-centenarian, is a person who is 110 or older. This age is achieved by about one in 1,000 centenarians. Supercentenarians typically live a life free of significant age-related diseases until short ...

age was never independently confirmed. His final publication was a memoir about

Sergei Yesenin Sergei Alexandrovich Yesenin (, ; 1895 – 28 December 1925), sometimes spelled as Esenin, was a Russian lyric poet. He is one of the most popular and well-known Russian poets of the 20th century. One of his narratives was "lyrical evocations ...

References

External links

''This article is based on a translation of the equivalent article of the

Russian Wikipedia The Russian Wikipedia () is the Russian language, Russian-language edition of Wikipedia. As of , it has :ru:Special:Statistics, articles. It was started on 11 May 2001. In October 2015, it became the sixth-largest Wikipedia by the number of ar ...

on 2 October 2007''.
Bryansky's tomb
{{DEFAULTSORT:Krasny, Sasha 1882 births 1995 deaths People from Sevastopol Russian male poets 20th-century pseudonymous writers 20th-century Russian male writers Soviet male writers Soviet poets Jewish Russian writers Russian military personnel of World War I Recipients of the Cross of St. George Men supercentenarians Jewish centenarians