Alexandr Yashin

Alexander Yakovlevich Yashin (russian: Алекса́ндр Я́ковлевич Я́шин; March 27, 1913 – July 11, 1968) was a Soviet writer associated with the Village Prose movement.

Biography

Early life

Yashin was born in the northern Russian village of Bludnovo, Nikolsky Uyezd, Vologda Governorate, 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 1928-29. His first book of poetry came out in 1934 in Arkhangelsk.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 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, with the Volga Fleet at Stalingrad, and with the Black Sea Fleet.

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. 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 StarAwards 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
20th-century short story writers
Soviet poets
Russian male poets
Soviet male writers
20th-century male writers
Stalin Prize winners
Maxim Gorky Literature Institute alumni

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