Antonina Dmitriyevna Koptiaeva (; 7 November 1909 – 12 November 1991) was a Soviet and Russian writer. Her novels concern the personal and professional lives of women in the Soviet Union.

Biography

Koptiaeva was born in Iuzhnyi in eastern Siberia. She and her husband Karl Yanovich Zeite, a mining official, moved to

Kolyma Kolyma (russian: Колыма́, ) is a region located in the Russian Far East. It is bounded to the north by the East Siberian Sea and the Arctic Ocean, and by the Sea of Okhotsk to the south. The region gets its name from the Kolyma River an ...

in 1932, where she began writing in 1935. Her first novel, ''Kolymskoe zoloto'' ("Kolyma Gold", 1936), was published under her married name A. Zeite. She also published a collection of essays, ''The Tale of Aldan,'' in 1937. Zeite was arrested in 1938 and died in prison. Both of their daughters also died in the 1930s. She later married author Fyodor Panfyorov (1896–1960). Her book ''Fart'' ("Lucky Break", 1940) was a socialist realist novel about Siberian gold mining, which was followed by ''Tovarishch Anna'' ("Comrade Anna", 1946), about a disintegrating marriage. She graduated from the

Maxim Gorky Literary Institute The Maxim Gorky Literature Institute (russian: Литературный институт им. А. М. Горького) is an institution of higher education in Moscow. It is located at 25 Tverskoy Boulevard in central Moscow. History The insti ...

in 1947. ''Ivan Ivanovich'' (1949) was the first in a trilogy of novels about the titular neurosurgeon, followed by ''Druzhba'' ("Friendship", 1954) and ''Derzanie'' ("Daring", 1958). ''Ivan Ivanovich'' was awarded the 1950 Stalin Prize. Her novel ''Dar zemli'' ("Gift of the Earth", 1963) was about oil workers. She also wrote ''On the Ural River'' (1971) and her memoirs, ''Severnoe Siianie'' ("The Northern Lights", 1977).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koptiaeva, Antonina 1909 births 1991 deaths 20th-century Russian women writers People from Amur Oblast (Russian Empire) Maxim Gorky Literature Institute alumni Recipients of the Stalin Prize Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Socialist realism writers Russian women novelists Soviet women novelists Soviet novelists