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Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Yevtushenko ( rus, links=no, 1=Евге́ний Алекса́ндрович Евтуше́нко; 18 July 1933 – 1 April 2017) was a Soviet and Russian poet. He was also a novelist, essayist, dramatist, screenwriter, publisher, actor, editor, university professor, and director of several films.


Biography


Early life

Yevtushenko was born Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Gangnus (he later took his mother's last name, Yevtushenko) in the Irkutsk region of
Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part ...
in a small town called Zima on 18 July 1933 to a peasant family of noble descent. He had Russian, Baltic German, Ukrainian, Polish, Belarusian, and Tatar roots. His maternal great-grandfather Joseph Baikovsky belonged to
szlachta The ''szlachta'' (Polish: endonym, Lithuanian: šlėkta) were the noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth who, as a class, had the dominating position in ...
, while his wife was of Ukrainian descent. They were exiled to Siberia after a peasant rebellion headed by Joseph. One of their daughters – Maria Baikovskaya – married Ermolai Naumovich Yevtushenko who was of Belarusian descent. He served as a soldier in the Imperial Army during
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
and as an officer in the
Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...
during the
Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...
. His paternal ancestors were Germans who moved to the Russian Empire in 1767. His grandfather Rudolph Gangnus, a math teacher of Baltic German descent, married Anna Plotnikova of
Russian nobility The Russian nobility (russian: дворянство ''dvoryanstvo'') originated in the 14th century. In 1914 it consisted of approximately 1,900,000 members (about 1.1% of the population) in the Russian Empire. Up until the February Revolutio ...
. Both of Yevtushenko's grandfathers were arrested during
Stalin's purges The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secret ...
as "enemies of the people" in 1937. Yevtushenko's father, Aleksandr Rudolfovich Gangnus, was a geologist, as was his mother, Zinaida Ermolaevna Yevtushenko, who later became a singer. The boy accompanied his father on geological expeditions to
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
in 1948, and to Altai, Siberia, in 1950. Young Yevtushenko wrote his first verses and humorous chastushki while living in Zima, Siberia. His parents were divorced when he was 7 and he was raised by his mother. By age 10, he had composed his first poem. Six years later a sports journal was the first periodical to publish his poetry. At 19, he published his first book of poems, ''The Prospects of the Future''. After the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, Yevtushenko moved to
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
and from 1951 to 1954 studied at the Gorky Institute of Literature in Moscow, from which he dropped out. In 1952, he joined the Union of Soviet Writers after publication of his first collection of poetry. His early poem ''So mnoyu vot chto proiskhodit'' (''"That's what is happening to me"'') became a very popular song, performed by actor-songwriter Alexander Dolsky. In 1955, Yevtushenko wrote a poem about the Soviet borders being an obstacle in his life. His first important publication was the 1956 poem ''Stantsiya Zima'' (''"Zima Station"''). In 1957, he was expelled from the Literary Institute for "
individualism Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology and social outlook that emphasizes the intrinsic worth of the individual. Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and to value independence and self-reli ...
". He was once labeled "''the head of the intellectual juvenile delinquents''" whose poems were "''pygmy spittle''". He was banned from travelling but gained wide popularity with the Soviet public. His early work also drew praise from
Boris Pasternak Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (; rus, Бори́с Леони́дович Пастерна́к, p=bɐˈrʲis lʲɪɐˈnʲidəvʲɪtɕ pəstɛrˈnak; 30 May 1960) was a Russian poet, novelist, composer and literary translator. Composed in 1917, Pa ...
,
Carl Sandburg Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg ...
and
Robert Frost Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American collo ...
.Queens College Office of Communication
"Queens College Presents an Evening of Poetry and Music with Yevgeny Yevtushenko on 11 December,"
18 November 2003. Retrieved 10 January 2009.
University of Tulsa News/Events/Publications
"Famed Russian Poet Yevtushenko to Perform and Sign Books at TU on 28 April,"
28 Mar 2003. Retrieved 10 January 2009.


During the Khrushchev Thaw

Yevtushenko was one of the authors politically active during the
Khrushchev Thaw The Khrushchev Thaw ( rus, хрущёвская о́ттепель, r=khrushchovskaya ottepel, p=xrʊˈɕːɵfskəjə ˈotʲ:ɪpʲɪlʲ or simply ''ottepel'')William Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and His Era, London: Free Press, 2004 is the period ...
. In 1961, he wrote what would become perhaps his most famous poem, '' Babiyy Yar'', in which he denounced the
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
distortion of historical fact regarding the
Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
massacre of the Jewish population of
Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Ky ...
in September 1941, as well as the
anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...
still widespread in the Soviet Union. The usual Soviet policy in relation to
the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europ ...
in Russia was to describe it as general atrocities against Soviet citizens and to avoid mentioning that it was a
genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the ...
of the Jews. However, Yevtushenko's work ''Babiyy Yar'' "spoke not only of the Nazi atrocities, but the Soviet government's own persecution of Jewish people." The poem was published in a major newspaper, ''
Literaturnaya Gazeta ''Literaturnaya Gazeta'' (russian: «Литературная Газета», ''Literary Gazette'') is a weekly cultural and political newspaper published in Russia and the Soviet Union. It was published for two periods in the 19th century, and ...
'', achieved widespread circulation in numerous copies, and later was set to music, together with four other Yevtushenko poems, by
Dmitri Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throughout his life as a major compo ...
in his Thirteenth Symphony, subtitled ''Babi Yar''. Of Yevtushenko's work, Shostakovich has said, "Morality is a sister of conscience. And perhaps God is with Yevtushenko when he speaks of conscience. Every morning, in place of prayers, I reread or repeat by memory two poems by Yevtushenko: 'Career' or 'Boots'." After the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in October 1961 – at which the former dictator
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet Union, Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as Ge ...
was denounced in public for crimes committed in the 1930s, Yevtushenko was allowed to join the editorial board of the journal ''
Yunost ''Yunost'' (russian: Ю́ность, ''Youth'') is a Russian language literary magazine created in 1955 in Moscow (initially as a USSR Union of Writers' organ) by Valentin Kataev, its first editor-in-chief, who was fired in 1961 for publishing Va ...
'', and in October 1962 was sent to Cuba as a correspondent of ''
Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the ...
''. In 1962, knowing that there was backlash against the anti-Stalin campaign, Yevtushenko wrote ''Nasledniki Stalina'' (''The Heirs of Stalin''), in which he stated that although Stalin was dead,
Stalinism Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the the ...
and its legacy still dominated the country; in the poem he also directly addressed the Soviet government, imploring them to make sure that Stalin would "never rise again". The poem also taunted neo-Stalinists for being out of touch with the times, saying "No wonder they suffer heart attacks." It was well known that Khrushchev's most dangerous rival, Frol Kozlov had recently had a heart attack. Yevtushenko wrote in his memoirs that he sent a copy of the poem to Khrushchev, who approved its publication. Published originally in ''
Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the ...
'' on 21 October 1962, the poem was not republished until a quarter of a century later, in the times of the comparatively liberal
Party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often featu ...
leader
Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Com ...
. In January 1963, he began a tour of West Germany and France, and while he was in Paris, arranged for his ''Precocious Autobiography'' to be serialised in ''L'Express''. This created a scandal in Moscow. In February, he was ordered to return to the USSR and at the end of March he was accused by a writer named G. A. Zhukov of an 'act of treason' and in April another writer, named Vladimir Fedorov, proposed that he be expelled from the Writers' Union. No official action was taken against him, but he was barred from travelling abroad for several years. Yevtushenko became one of the best known poets of the 1950s and 1960s in the Soviet Union. He was part of the 1960s generation, which included such writers as
Vasily Aksyonov Vasily Pavlovich Aksyonov ( rus, Васи́лий Па́влович Аксёнов, p=vɐˈsʲilʲɪj ˈpavləvʲɪtɕ ɐˈksʲɵnəf; August 20, 1932 – July 6, 2009) was a Soviet and Russian novelist. He became known in the West as the aut ...
, Andrei Voznesensky,
Bella Akhmadulina Izabella Akhatovna Akhmadulina ( rus, Бе́лла (Изабе́лла) Аха́товна Ахмаду́лина, tt-Cyrl, Белла Әхәт кызы Әхмәдуллина; 10 April 1937 – 29 November 2010) was a Soviet and Russian poet, ...
, Robert Rozhdestvensky, Anatoly Gladilin; as well as actors Andrei Mironov, Aleksandr Zbruyev,
Natalya Fateyeva Natalya Nikolayevna Fateyeva (russian: Наталья Николаевна Фатеева; born 23 December 1934) is a Soviet and Russian film actress and television presenter. She has appeared in more than fifty films since 1956. People's Artist ...
, and many others. During the time, Anna Akhmatova, a number of whose family members suffered under the communist rule, criticised Yevtushenko's aesthetic ideals and his poetics. The late Russian poet Victor Krivulin quotes her saying that "Yevtushenko doesn't rise above an average newspaper satirist's level. Yevtushenko and Andrei Voznesensky's works just don't do it for me, therefore neither of them exists for me as a poet." Alternatively, Yevtushenko was much respected by others at the time both for his poetry and his political stance toward the Soviet government. "Dissident Pavel Litvinov had said that ' evtushenkoexpressed what my generation felt. Then we left him behind.'" Between 1963 until 1965, for example, Yevtushenko, already an internationally recognised littérateur, was banned from travelling outside the Soviet Union."A Demanding Kind of Genius," ''
Irish Independent The ''Irish Independent'' is an Irish daily newspaper and online publication which is owned by Independent News & Media (INM), a subsidiary of Mediahuis. The newspaper version often includes glossy magazines. Traditionally a broadsheet new ...
'', 8 May 2004.
In 1963, he was nominated for the
Nobel Prize in Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...
for his poem "Babi Yar", concerning the 1941 massacres at Kyiv. Generally, however, Yevtushenko was still the most extensively travelled Soviet poet, possessing an amazing capability to balance between moderate criticism of Soviet regime, which gained him popularity in the West, and, as noted by some, a strong Marxist–Leninist ideological stance,Judith Colp. "Yevtushenko: The story of a superstar poet," ''The Washington Times'', 3 January 1991, p. E1. which allegedly proved his loyalty to Soviet authorities. At that time, KGB Chairman Vladimir Semichastny and the next KGB Chairman
Yuri Andropov Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (– 9 February 1984) was the sixth paramount leader of the Soviet Union and the fourth General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After Leonid Brezhnev's 18-year rule, Andropov served in the ...
reported to the Communist Politburo on the "Anti-Soviet activity of poet Yevtushenko." Nevertheless, some nicknamed Yevtushenko "Zhenya Gapon," comparing him to Father Georgy Gapon, a Russian priest who at the time of the Revolution of 1905 was both a leader of rebellious workers and a secret police agent.


Controversy

In 1965, Yevtushenko joined Anna Akhmatova, Korney Chukovsky,
Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and lite ...
and others and co-signed the letter of protest against the unfair trial of
Joseph Brodsky Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky (; russian: link=no, Иосиф Александрович Бродский ; 24 May 1940 – 28 January 1996) was a Russian and American poet and essayist. Born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), USSR in 1940, ...
as a result of the court case against him initiated by the Soviet authorities. He subsequently co-signed a letter against the
Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia refers to the events of 20–21 August 1968, when the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Rep ...
in 1968. Nevertheless, "when, in 1987, Yevtushenko was made an honorary member of the
American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...
, Brodsky himself led a flurry of protest, accusing Yevtushenko of duplicity and claiming that Yevtushenko's criticism of the Soviet Union was launched only in the directions approved by the Party and that he criticised what was acceptable to the Kremlin, when it was acceptable to the Kremlin, while soaking up adulation and honours as a fearless voice of dissent." Further, of note is "Yevtushenko's protest of the trial of Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuli Daniel, an event now credited with inaugurating the modern dissident movement and readying the national pulse for perestroika. Both writers had toiled under pseudonyms and stood accused, in 1966, of "anti-Soviet activity" for the views espoused by their fictional characters. But Yevtushenko's actual position was that the writers were guilty, only punished too severely." "Yevtushenko was not among the authors of the "Letter of the 63" who protested heir convictions" On 23 August 1968, Yevtushenko sent a telegram to the Soviet prime minister Alexei Kosygin lamenting the invasion of Czechoslovakia, but "when Yevtushenko was nominated for the poetry chair at Oxford in 1968,
Kingsley Amis Sir Kingsley William Amis (16 April 1922 – 22 October 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social ...
, Bernard Levin, and the Russian-Hungarian historian Tibor Szamuely led the campaign against him, arguing that he had made life difficult for his fellow Soviet writers."


Films

He was filmed as himself during the 1950s as a performing poet-actor. Yevtushenko contributed lyrics to several Soviet films and contributed to the script of '' Soy Cuba'' (''I Am Cuba'', 1964), a Soviet propaganda film. His acting career began with the leading role in '' Vzlyot'' (''Take-Off'', 1979) by director Savva Kulish, where he played the leading role as Russian rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. Yevtushenko also made two films as a writer/director. His film ''Detsky Sad'' (''
Kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...
'', 1983) and his last film, '' Pokhorony Stalina'' (''Stalin's Funeral'', 1990) deal with life in the Soviet Union.


Post-Soviet period

In 1989, Yevtushenko was elected as a representative for
Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest city and municipality in Ukraine.
in the Soviet Parliament (Congress of Peoples Deputies), where he was a member of the pro-democratic group supporting
Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Com ...
. In 1991, he supported
Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...
, as the latter defended the parliament of the
Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
during the hardline coup that sought to oust Gorbachev and reverse "
perestroika ''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated wit ...
". Later, however, when Yeltsin sent tanks into restive
Chechnya Chechnya ( rus, Чечня́, Chechnyá, p=tɕɪtɕˈnʲa; ce, Нохчийчоь, Noxçiyçö), officially the Chechen Republic,; ce, Нохчийн Республика, Noxçiyn Respublika is a republic of Russia. It is situated in the ...
, Yevtushenko reportedly "denounced his old ally and refused to accept an award from him." In the post-Soviet era, Yevtushenko actively discussed environmental issues, confronted Russian Nationalist writers from the alternative Union of the Writers of Russia, and campaigned for the preservation of the memory of victims of Stalin's
Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the State Political Directorate, GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= ...
. In 1995, he published his huge anthology of contemporary Russian poetry entitled ''Verses of the Century''.


In the West

After October 2007, Yevtushenko divided his time between Russia and the United States, teaching Russian and European poetry and the history of world cinema at the
University of Tulsa The University of Tulsa (TU) is a private research university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has a historic affiliation with the Presbyterian Church and the campus architectural style is predominantly Collegiate Gothic. The school traces its origin to ...
in
Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...
and at
Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body representing more than 170 ...
of the
City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the public university system of New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven senior colleges, seven community colleges and seven pro ...
as well as at Florida Atlantic University. In a 1995 interview, he said, "I like very much the University of Tulsa. My students are sons of ranchers, even cowboys, oil engineers. They are different people, but they are very gifted. They are closer to Mother Nature than the big city. They are more sensitive." In the West, he was best known for his criticism of the
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
bureaucracy and appeals for getting rid of the legacy of Stalin. He was working on a three-volume collection of 11th to 20th-century Russian poetry and planned a novel based on his time in Havana during the
Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis (of 1962) ( es, Crisis de Octubre) in Cuba, the Caribbean Crisis () in Russia, or the Missile Scare, was a 35-day (16 October – 20 November 1962) confrontation between the United S ...
(he was, reportedly, good friends with
Che Guevara Ernesto Che Guevara (; 14 June 1928The date of birth recorded on /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Ernesto_Guevara_Acta_de_Nacimiento.jpg his birth certificatewas 14 June 1928, although one tertiary source, (Julia Constenla, quoted ...
, Salvador Allende and
Pablo Neruda Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda (; ), was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Nerud ...
). In October 2007, he was an artist-in-residence with the College of Arts and Humanities at the
University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of ...
, and recited his poem ''Babi Yar'' before a performance of
Dmitri Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throughout his life as a major compo ...
's Symphony No. 13 by the University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra. The first performance of the two works on the same program that Shostakovich set to Yevtushenko texts with Yevtushenko present took place at the University of Houston's Moores School of Music in 1998, under the baton of Franz Anton Krager. The performance was the idea of the then-President of the Moores School of Music Society, Philip Berquist, a long time friend of Yevtushenko, after the poet informed him that the two works had never been performed together. Yevtushenko had told Berquist that
Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...
had wanted to do so, but it never came to realisation. The first translation of Yevtushenko's poetry into English was ''Yevtushenko: Selected Poems'', a translation by
Robin Milner-Gulland Robert Rainsford "Robin" Milner-Gulland, FBA, FSA, (born Mill Hill, 24 February 1936) is a British scholar of Russian and Byzantine literature, culture, and art. His main areas of expertise are Russian modern & medieval cultural history, modern ...
and Peter Levi published in 1962.


Criticism

Michael Weiss, writing in ''
The New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New Yor ...
'' in 2008, asserted that "Yevtushenko's politics have always been a complicated mixture of bravery, populism, and vulgar accommodation with dictatorship." Judith Colp of ''
The Washington Times ''The Washington Times'' is an American conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., that covers general interest topics with a particular emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughou ...
'', for example, described Yevtushenko as "his country's most controversial modern poet, a man whose reputation is poised between courageous behind-the-scenes reformer and failed dissident." Indeed, "as the Sovietologist and literary critic Robert Conquest put it in a 1974 profile: 'The writers who had briefly flourished nder Khrushchev's thawwent two different ways.
Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Russian novelist. One of the most famous Soviet dissidents, Solzhenitsyn was an outspoken critic of communism and helped to raise global awareness of political repress ...
and his like into silenced opposition; Yevtushenko and his like, sometimes reluctantly, sometimes in the hope of still influencing matters a little, into well-rewarded collaboration.'" Some argue that before the appearance of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn,
Andrei Sakharov Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov ( rus, Андрей Дмитриевич Сахаров, p=ɐnˈdrʲej ˈdmʲitrʲɪjevʲɪtɕ ˈsaxərəf; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, nobel laureate and activist for n ...
, and the dissident movement in the Soviet Union, Yevtushenko, through his poetry, was the first voice to speak out against StalinismDonald W. Patterson, "Renowned Poet to Visit City," '' News & Record'' (Greensboro, NC), 8 April 1999, p. 3. (although
Boris Pasternak Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (; rus, Бори́с Леони́дович Пастерна́к, p=bɐˈrʲis lʲɪɐˈnʲidəvʲɪtɕ pəstɛrˈnak; 30 May 1960) was a Russian poet, novelist, composer and literary translator. Composed in 1917, Pa ...
is often considered "to have helped give birth to the dissident movement with the publication of his ''
Doctor Zhivago ''Doctor Zhivago'' is the title of a novel by Boris Pasternak and its various adaptations. Description The story, in all of its forms, describes the life of the fictional Russian physician and poet Yuri Zhivago and deals with love and loss during ...
''"). Colp adds: "Sovietologist Stephen Cohen of Princeton University contends that Yevtushenko was among those Soviets who didn't become dissidents but in their own way tried to improve conditions and prepare the way for reform,
aying that Aying is a municipality in the district of Munich in Bavaria, Germany. It is known for the Ayinger Brewery Ayinger Brewery ( ; german: Brauerei Aying) is in Aying, Bavaria, Germany, about 25 km south of Munich. Ayinger beers are export ...
'They exhibited a kind of civic courage that many Americans didn't recognize.'" Kevin O'Connor, in his ''Intellectuals and Apparatchiks,'' noted that Yevtushenko was "a popular liberal who never experienced the sort of intimidation that characterized regime's treatment of dissident writers Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and
Vladimir Voinovich Vladimir Nikolayevich Voinovich (russian: Влади́мир Никола́евич Войно́вич, 26 September 1932 – 27 July 2018), was a Russian writer and former Soviet dissident, and the "first genuine comic writer" produced by the S ...
(each of whom was forced to leave the USSR)." Brodsky repeatedly criticised Yevtushenko for what he perceived as his "conformism", especially after the latter was made a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Commenting on this controversy in ''A Night in the Nabokov Hotel'', an anthology of Russian poetry in English translation,
Anatoly Kudryavitsky Anatoly Kudryavitsky (Russian: Анатолий Исаевич Кудрявицкий; born 17 August 1954) is a Russian-Irish novelist, poet, editor and literary translator. Biography Kudryavitsky's father, Jerzy, was a Ukrainian-born Polish n ...
wrote that "A few Russian poets enjoyed virtual pop-star status, unthinkable if transposed to other parts of Europe. In reality, they were far from any sort of protest against Soviet totalitarianism and therefore could not be regarded as anything else but naughty children of the regime." Furthermore, some criticised Yevtushenko regarding Pasternak's widow, given that "when Pasternak's widow, Olga Ivinskaya, was imprisoned on trumped-up charges of illegally dealing in foreign currency, Yevtushenko publicly maligned her nd addedthat ''Doctor Zhivago'' was not worth publishing in the Soviet Union." "The exiled poet
Joseph Brodsky Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky (; russian: link=no, Иосиф Александрович Бродский ; 24 May 1940 – 28 January 1996) was a Russian and American poet and essayist. Born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), USSR in 1940, ...
once said of Yevtushenko, 'He throws stones only in directions that are officially sanctioned and approved.'" Moreover, "the poet
Irina Ratushinskaya Irina Borisovna Ratushinskaya (russian: Ири́на Бори́совна Ратуши́нская, 4 March 1954, Odessa – 5 July 2017, Moscow) was a Russian Soviet dissident, poet and writer. Biography Irina Ratushinskaya was born in Odessa ...
, upon her release from prison and arrival in the West, dismissed Yevtushenko as ''an official poet'' and the novelist
Vasily Aksyonov Vasily Pavlovich Aksyonov ( rus, Васи́лий Па́влович Аксёнов, p=vɐˈsʲilʲɪj ˈpavləvʲɪtɕ ɐˈksʲɵnəf; August 20, 1932 – July 6, 2009) was a Soviet and Russian novelist. He became known in the West as the aut ...
has also refused contact ith Yevtushenko"
For Yevtushenko, a Search for a Little Respect
'' CELESTINE BOHLEN. ''The New York Times''. Section 1; Part 1, Page 16, Column 3; Foreign Desk 20 November 1988.
Responding to the criticism, Yevtushenko reportedly said:
Who could sanction me to write ''Babi Yar'', or my protests against the (1968) Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia? Only I criticised Khrushchev to his face; not even Solzhenitsyn did that. It is only the envy of people who couldn't stand against the propaganda machine, and they invented things about my generation, the artists of the '60s. Our generation was breaking the Iron Curtain. It was a generation crippled by history, and most of our dreams were doomed to be unfulfilled – but the fight for freedom was not in vain.
Yevtushenko further notes that "in several cases epersonally rose to the defense of these writers, interceding privately for Ratushinskaya's release from prison, defending Aksionov and others who were expelled from the Writers' Union." Critics differ on the stature of Yevtushenko in the literature world, with "most Western intellectuals and many Russian scholars extol nghim as the greatest writer of his generation, the voice of Soviet life."Yevtushenko, Yevgeny: Introduction
" Poetry Criticism. Ed. David Galens. Vol. 40. Gale Cengage, 2002. eNotes.com. 2006. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
They "acknowledge that his speaking tours have won him converts among audiences impressed with his dramatic readings and charismatic personality. Tina Tupikina Glaessner (1967) refers to him as "one of the greatest poets of the modern age". She states that "Bratsk Station" offers the greatest insight into Soviet life of any work in modern Russian literature. Two decades later, in his 1988 article, Michael Pursglove echoes her sentiments, referring to Stanciya Zima as "one of the landmarks of Soviet literature." Yevtushenko's defenders point to "how much he did to oppose the Stalin legacy, his animus fueled by the knowledge that both of his grandfathers had perished in Stalin’s purges of the 1930s. He was expelled from his university in 1956 for joining the defense of a banned novel,
Vladimir Dudintsev Vladimir Dimitrievich Dudintsev (russian: Влади́мир Дми́триевич Дуди́нцев, ; 29 July 1918 – 23 July 1998) was a Soviet writer who gained fame for his 1956 novel, ''Not by Bread Alone'', published at the time of the ...
's "Not by Bread Alone". He refused to join in the official campaign against Boris Pasternak, the author of ''Doctor Zhivago'' and the recipient of the 1958 Nobel Prize in Literature. Yevtushenko denounced the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968; interceded with the KGB chief, Yuri V. Andropov, on behalf of another Nobel laureate, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn; and opposed the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979."


Personal life and death

Yevtushenko was known for his many alleged liaisons. Yevtushenko was married four times: in 1954 he married
Bella Akhmadulina Izabella Akhatovna Akhmadulina ( rus, Бе́лла (Изабе́лла) Аха́товна Ахмаду́лина, tt-Cyrl, Белла Әхәт кызы Әхмәдуллина; 10 April 1937 – 29 November 2010) was a Soviet and Russian poet, ...
, who published her first collection of poems in 1962. After divorce he married Galina Sokol-Lukonina. Yevtushenko's third wife was English translator Jan Butler (married in 1978) and his fourth Maria Novikova whom he married in 1986. He had five sons: Dmitry, Sasha, Pyotr, Anton and Yevgeny. His wife teaches Russian at
Edison Preparatory School Thomas Edison Preparatory School is a public school located in midtown Tulsa, Oklahoma serving students from the 6th grade to the 12th grade. Overview The school was recently ranked by '' Newsweek'' as the #467 best high school in the nation. ...
in
Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region wit ...
. Yevtushenko himself spent half the year at the
University of Tulsa The University of Tulsa (TU) is a private research university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has a historic affiliation with the Presbyterian Church and the campus architectural style is predominantly Collegiate Gothic. The school traces its origin to ...
, lecturing on poetry and European cinema. Yevtushenko died on the morning of 1 April 2017, at the Hillcrest Medical Center in
Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region wit ...
. His widow, Maria Novikova, reported that he died peacefully in his sleep of heart failure. His son Yevgeny reported that Yevtushenko had been diagnosed with cancer about six years before and that he had undergone surgery to remove part of a kidney, but the disease had recently returned. "His wife, Maria Novikova, and their two sons, Dmitry and Yevgeny, were reportedly with him when he died." Following his death, Yevtushenko was described by his friend and translator
Robin Milner-Gulland Robert Rainsford "Robin" Milner-Gulland, FBA, FSA, (born Mill Hill, 24 February 1936) is a British scholar of Russian and Byzantine literature, culture, and art. His main areas of expertise are Russian modern & medieval cultural history, modern ...
as "an absolute natural talent at performance" on
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...
's '' Last Word'' programme. Milner-Gulland also wrote, in an obituary in ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...
'', that "there was a brief stage when the development of Russian literature seemed almost synonymous with his name", and that amidst his characteristics of "sharpness, sentiment, populism, self-confidence and sheer enjoyment of the sound of language", he was "above all a generous spirit". Raymond H. Anderson stated in
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
that his "defiant" poetry "inspired a generation of young Russians in their fight against Stalinism during the Cold War".


Awards and honours

In 1962 Yevtushenko was featured on the cover of ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...
'' magazine. In 1993, Yevtushenko received a medal as 'Defender of Free Russia,' which was given to those who took part in resisting the hard-line Communist coup in August 1991. In July 2000 the Russian Academy of Sciences named a star in his honour. In 2001, his childhood home in Zima Junction, Siberia, was restored and opened as a permanent museum of poetry. Yevtushenko received in 1991 the American Liberties Medallion, the highest honour conferred by the American Jewish Committee. He was awarded the Laureate of the International Botev Prize, in Bulgaria in 2006. In 2007, he was awarded the Ovid Prize, Romania, in recognition of his body of work. * Order of the Badge of Honour (1967) *
Order of the Red Banner of Labour The Order of the Red Banner of Labour (russian: Орден Трудового Красного Знамени, translit=Orden Trudovogo Krasnogo Znameni) was an order of the Soviet Union established to honour great deeds and services to th ...
(1983) * "Frudzheno-81" (Italy), "SIMBA Academy" in 1984 (Italy) *
USSR State Prize The USSR State Prize (russian: links=no, Государственная премия СССР, Gosudarstvennaya premiya SSSR) was the Soviet Union's state honor. It was established on 9 September 1966. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, t ...
(1984) – for the poem "Mother and Neutron Bomb" *
Order of Friendship of Peoples The Order of Friendship of Peoples (russian: oрден Дружбы народов, translit=orden Druzhby narodov) was an order of the Soviet Union, and was awarded to persons (including non-citizens), organizations, enterprises, military unit ...
(offered in 1993, but refused in protest against the war in Chechnya) * Tsarskoselskaya art prize (2003) * Honorary Citizen of the city of
Petrozavodsk Petrozavodsk (russian: Петрозаводск, p=pʲɪtrəzɐˈvotsk; Karelian, Vepsian and fi, Petroskoi) is the capital city of the Republic of Karelia, Russia, which stretches along the western shore of Lake Onega for some . The population ...
(2006) * Honorary Doctor of
Petrozavodsk State University Petrozavodsk State University (PetrSU) is a classical university in Petrozavodsk, Republic of Karelia, Russia. It was founded in 1940 as the Karelian-Finnish University and was renamed in 1956. The rector of Petrozavodsk State University is Prof ...
(2007) * Commander of the
Order of Bernardo O'Higgins The Order of Bernardo O'Higgins ( es, Orden de Bernardo O'Higgins) is an award issued by Chile. It is the highest civilian honor awarded to non-Chilean citizens. This award was established in 1965 and named after one of the founders of the Chilean ...
(Chile, 2009) *
State Prize of the Russian Federation The State Prize of the Russian Federation, officially translated in Russia as Russian Federation National Award, is a state honorary prize established in 1992 following the breakup of the Soviet Union. In 2004 the rules for selection of laureates ...
(2010) * Honorary Member of the Russian Academy of Arts * Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 3rd class * "Golden Chain of the Commonwealth" (2011)- the highest award of the NGO "Russian-speaking community of creators" * The Russian national "The Poet" award (2013) * Honorary Citizen of Irkutsk Region (2015) – for meritorious service, creative activities contributing to raising the profile of the Irkutsk region of the Russian Federation and abroad * Honorary Doctor of
Irkutsk State University Irkutsk State University (russian: Ирку́тский госуда́рственный университе́т) was founded in October 1918 in Irkutsk, Siberia. Nowadays Irkutsk State University is a large scientific and educational institu ...
(2015) * Order of the "Polar Star" (2016) – for outstanding achievements in the field of literature and arts


Also awarded

* 2015 – China International Prize "Chzhunkun" ( Chin. Ex. 中坤国际诗歌奖, pinyin : Zhōngkūn guójì shīgē jiǎng ) for his outstanding contribution to the world of poetry * 2007, on the initiative of the World Congress of Russian Jews (WCRJ), nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2008 for the poem "Babi Yar" * 22 January 2005 in Turin, the Italian literary award Grinzane Cavour (Yevtushenko was awarded the Premio of Grinzane Cavour ) – for their ability to convey the eternal themes by means of literature, especially to the younger generation" * Honorary Member of the
Royal Spanish Academy The Royal Spanish Academy ( es, Real Academia Española, generally abbreviated as RAE) is Spain's official royal institution with a mission to ensure the stability of the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, and is affiliated with ...
and of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
* The Boccaccio Prize (Italy) – for the best foreign novel * The
Golden Lion The Golden Lion ( it, Leone d'oro) is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguis ...
International Prize (Venice) * The Grinzane Cavour Prize (22 January 2005, Turin, Italy) – "for his ability to convey the eternal themes of the means of literature, especially to the younger generation" * Professor at the
University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...
, University of Santo Domingo and the
University of Tulsa The University of Tulsa (TU) is a private research university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has a historic affiliation with the Presbyterian Church and the campus architectural style is predominantly Collegiate Gothic. The school traces its origin to ...
* An asteroid 4234 Evtushenko was named after him in 1994


Bibliography

source: *''Razvedchiki Griadushchego'' ("The Prospectors of the Future"), 1952 *''Treti Sneg'' ("The Third Snow"), 1955 *''Shosse Entuziastov'' ("Highway of the Enthusiasts"), 1956 *''Stantsiia Zima'' ("Winter Station"), 1956 *''Obeshchanie'' ("Promise"), 1957 *''Dve Liubimykh'' ("Two Beloved Ones"), 1958 *''Luk I Lira'' ("A Bow and a Lyra"), 1959 *''Stikhi Raznykh Let'' ("Poems of Several Years"), 1959 *''Chetvertaia Meshchanskaia'' ("Four Vulgar Women"), 1959 *''Iabloko'' ("The Apple"), 1960 *''Red Cats'', 1961 *''Baby Yar'' ("Babi Yar"), 1961 *''Posle Stalina'' ("After Stalin"), 1962 *''Vzmach Ruki'', 1962 *''Selected Poems'' London:
Penguin Penguins (order Sphenisciformes , family Spheniscidae ) are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adap ...
, 1962 *''Nezhnost': Novye Stikni'' ("Tenderness: New Poems"), 1962 *''Nasledniki Stalina'' ("The Heirs of Stalin"), 1963 *''Autobiografia'' ("A Precocious Autobiography"), 1963 *''Selected Poetry'', 1963 *''Soy Cuba'', 1964 (screenplay with Enrique Pineda Barbet) *''The Poetry of Yevgeny Yevtusenko'', 1964 *''Khochu Ia Stat' Nemnozhko Straromodym'' ("I Want to Become a Bit Old-Fashioned"), 1964 *''Americanci, gde vash president'' ("Americans, Where is your President?"), 1964 *''Bratskaya Ges'' ("The Bratsk Station"), 1965 *''Khotiat Li Russkie Voiny?'' ("Want the Russian Wars?"), 1965 *''Poems'', 1966 *''Yevtusenko Poems'', 1966 *''Yevtusenko's Reader: The Spirit of Elbe, a Precocious Autobiography'', Poems, 1966 *''Kater Zviazi'' ("The Zvyazi Boat"), 1966 *''Kachka'' ("Swing-Boat"), 1966 *''The Execution of Stepan Razin'', Op. 119, 1966 (score by
Dmitri Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throughout his life as a major compo ...
, 1966 *''Poems Chosen by the Author'', 1966 *''The City of the Yes and the City of the No and Other Poems'', 1966 *''So Mnoiu Vot Chto Proiskhodit'' ("This is what is happening to me"), 1966 *''New Works: the Bratsk Station'', 1966 *''Stikhi'' ("Poems"), 1967 *''New Poems'', 1968 *''Tramvai Poezii'' ("Train of Poetry"), 1968 *''Tiaga Val'dshnepov'' ("The Pull of the Woodcocks"), 1968 *''Bratskaia Ges'' ("The Bratsk Station"), 1968 *''Idut Belye Snegi'' ("The White Snow Is Falling"), 1969 *''Flowers and Bullets, and Freedom to Kill'', 1970 *''Kazanskii Universitet'' ("Kazan University and Other New Poems"), 1971 *''Ia Sibirskoi Porody'' ("I'm of Siberian Stock"), 1971 *''Doroka Nomen Odin'' ("Highway Number One"), 1972 *''Stolen Apples: His Own Selection of his Best Work.'' W. H. Allen, 1972 *''Izbrannye Proizvedeniia'', 2 vols., 1975 *''Poiushchaia Damba'' ("The Singing Dam"), 1972 *''Under the Skin of the Statue of Liberty'', play, 1982 *''Poet V Rossii – Bol'she, Chem Poet'' ("A Poet in Russia Is more than a Poet"), 1973 *''Intimnaia Lirika'' ("Intimate Lyrics"), 1973 *''Ottsovskii Slukh'' ("Paternal Hearing"), 1975 *''Izbrannye Proizvedeniia'' ("Selected Works"), 2 vols., 1975 *''Proseka'' ("The Glade"), 1976 *''Spasibo'' ("Thankyou"), 1976 *''From Desire to Desire'', 1976 (UK: ''Love Poems'') *''V Polnyi Rost'' ("At Full Growth"), 1977 *''Zaklinanie'' ("A Spell"), 1977 *''Utrennyi Narod'' ("The Morning Crowds"), 1978 *''Prisiaga Prostoru'' ("An Oath to Space"), 1978 *''Kompromiss Kompromissovich'' ("Compromise of Compromise"), 1978 *''The Face Behind the Face'', 1979 *''Ivan the Terrible and Ivan the Fool'', 1979 *''Tiazhelee Zemli'' ("Heavier than Earth"), 1979 *''Kogda Muzhchine Sorok Let'' ("When a Man Is 40"), 1979 *''Doroka, Ukhodiashchaia Vdal'' ("The Highway, Leaving Away"), 1979 *''Svarka Vzryvom'' ("Wedding Explosion"), 1980 *''Talent Est Chudo Nesluchainoe'' ("Talent Is a Miracle Coming Not by Chance"), 1980 *''Tochka Opory'' ("Fulcrum"), 1980 *''Tret'ia Oamiat ("Third Memory"), 1980 *''Poslushaite Menia'' ("Listen to Me"), 1980 *''Ardabiola'', 1981 *''Yagodnyye Mesta'' ("Wild Berries"), 1981 *''Invisible Threads'', 1981 *''Ia Sibiriak'' ("I'm a Siberian"), 1981 *''Sobranie Socineniy'' ("Collection of Works"), 1982 *''A Dove in Santiago'', 1982 *''Dve Pary Lyzh'' ("Two Pairs of Skis"), 1982 *''Belye Snegi'' ("White Snow"), 1982 *''Mama I Neitronaiia Bomba I Drugie Poemy'' ("Mother and Neutron Bomb and Other Poems"), 1983 *''Otkuda Rodom Ia'' ("Where I Come From"), 1983 *''Voina – Eto Antikultura'' ("War is Anti-Culture"), 1983 *''Sobranie Sochinenii'' ("Collected Works"), 3 vols., 1983–84 *''Kindergarten'', screenplay, 1984 *''Fuku'', 1985 – Fuku: Runoelma *''Pochti Naposledok'' ("Almost at the End"), 1985 *''Dva Goroda'' (Two Towns"), 1985 *''More'', 1985 *''Poltravinochki'', 1986 *''Stikhi'' ("Poems"), 1986 *''Zavrtrashnii Veter'' ("Tomorrow's Wind"), 1987 *''Stikhotvoreniia I Poemy 1951–1986'' ("Poems and Verses"), 3 vols., 1987 *''Posledniaia Popytka'' (The Last Attempt"), 1988 *''Pochti V Poslednii Mig'' ("Almost at the Last Moment"), 1988 *''Nezhnost'' ("Tenderness"), 1988 *''Divided Twins: Alaska and Siberia – Razdel'ennye Bliznetsy'', 1988 *''Poemy O Mire'' ("Verses on Peace"), 1989 *''Detskii sad Moscow'' ("Moscow Kindergarten"), Screenplay, 1989 *''Stikhi'' ("Poems"), 1989 *''Grazhdane, Poslushaite Menia...'' ("Citizens, Listen to Me"), 1989 *''Liubimaia, Spi...'' ("Loved One, Sleep..."), 1989 *''Detskii Sad'' ("Kindergarten"), 1989 *''Pomozhem Svobode'' ("We Will Help Freedom"), 1990 *''Politika Privilegiia Vsekh'' ("Everybody's Privilege"), 1990 *''Propast – V Dva Pryzhka?'' ("The Precipice – In Two Leaps?"), 1990 *''Fatal Half Measures'', 1991 *''The Collected Poems 1952–1990'’, 1991 *''Ne Umirai Prezhde Smerti'' ("Don't Die Before You're Dead"), 1993 *''Moe Samoe-samoe'' ("My Most most"), 1995 *''Pre-morning. Predutro'', bilingual edition, 1995 *''Medlennaia Liubov'' ("Slow Love"), 1997 *''Izbrannaia Proza'' ("Selected Prose"), 1998 *''Volchii Pasport'', 1998 *''The Best of the Best: A New Book of Poetry in English and Russian'', 1999 *''Walk on the Ledge: A New Book of Poetry in English and Russian'', 2005 *''Shestidesantnik: memuarnaia proza'' ("Paratroopers of the 1960s: A Memoir in Prose"), 2006


Reviews

* McDuff, David (1982), review of ''Invisible Threads'', in '' Cencrastus'' No. 9, Summer 1982, p. 48,


References

* ''A Night in the Nabokov Hotel. 20 Contemporary Poets from Russia'',
Anatoly Kudryavitsky Anatoly Kudryavitsky (Russian: Анатолий Исаевич Кудрявицкий; born 17 August 1954) is a Russian-Irish novelist, poet, editor and literary translator. Biography Kudryavitsky's father, Jerzy, was a Ukrainian-born Polish n ...
(ed.), Dublin, Dedalus Press, 2006
Online
* ''Строфы века. Антология русской поэзии'', Yevgeny Yevtushenko (ed.), Verses of the Century, 1995

'


Further reading

* Yevtushenko, Yevgeny: ''The Collected Poems 1952–1990'', New York: Henry Holt (1992) * "Yevtushenko, Yevgeny: Introduction." ''Poetry Criticism'', David Galens (ed.) Vol. 40. Gale Cengage, 2002. eNotes.com. 2006. 11 Jan 2009 * * ''Soviet Russian Literature: Writers and Problems'' by M. Slonim (1967)
"The Politics of Poetry: The Sad Case of Yevgeny Yevtushenko"
by Robert Conquest, in ''
New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. ...
'' (30 September 1973) * ''Soviet Russian Literature Since Stalin'', by Deming Brown (1978) * ''Evgenii Evtushenko'' by E. Sidorov (1987) * ''Soviet Literature in the 1980s'', by N. N. Shneidman (1989) * ''Reference Guide to Russian Literature'', by Neil Cornwell (ed.) (1998)


Notes


External links


Yevgeny Yevtushenko poetry
a
Stihipoeta.ru

Biography
– ''Canadian Encyclopedia''

*


Yevgeny Yevtushenko. Collected Poems in English. Part 2

Yevgeny Yevtushenko. Zima Station Poem

Yevgeny Yevtushenko. "May God" ("Дай Бог") (English translation)





Audio/Video recordings
of a Poetry Reading by Yevgeny Yevtushenko at the University of Chicago * Th

in the Rare Book and Special Collection Division at the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...
contains materials related to the career of Yevtushenko. {{DEFAULTSORT:Yevtushenko, Yevgeny 1933 births 2017 deaths 20th-century pseudonymous writers 20th-century Russian male writers 20th-century Russian poets 20th-century Russian screenwriters 21st-century pseudonymous writers 21st-century Russian male writers 21st-century Russian poets Honorary Members of the Russian Academy of Arts Maxim Gorky Literature Institute alumni University of Pittsburgh faculty University of Tulsa faculty Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 3rd class Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the USSR State Prize State Prize of the Russian Federation laureates Russian people of Baltic German descent Russian people of Belarusian descent Russian people of German descent Russian people of Polish descent Russian people of Tatar descent Russian people of Ukrainian descent Male screenwriters Russian-language poets Russian male novelists Russian male writers Russian male poets Soviet male poets Soviet male writers Soviet novelists Soviet screenwriters Deaths from kidney cancer