Alexander Yashin

{{short description|Soviet writer}} {{Infobox writer  | image = Alexander Yashin.jpg | imagesize = 200px | caption = |birth_name=Alexander Yakovlevich Yashin | birth_date = {{birth date|1913|3|27}} | birth_place = Bludnovo, Nikolsky Uyezd, Vologda Governorate, Russian Empire | death_date = {{death date and age|1968|7|11|1913|3|27}} | death_place = Moscow, Soviet Union | notableworks = ''Levers''<br>''A Feast of Rowanberries'' }} '''Alexander Yakovlevich Yashin''' ({{langx|ru|Алекса́ндр Я́ковлевич Я́шин}}; March 27, 1913 – July 11, 1968)<ref>Birth and death dates according to Alexander Yashin article at Ru.Wikipedia.</ref> 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.<ref name="Fifty">Biographical note, Fifty Years of Russian Prose, M.I.T. Press, 1971.</ref> His first poems were published in various district newspapers between 1928 and 1929. His first book of poetry came out in 1934 in Arkhangelsk.<ref name="Fifty"/><ref name="Intro">Introduction to ''A Feast of Rowanberries'', Anthology of Soviet Short Stories, Vol 1, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1976.</ref>

In the late 1930s he studied at the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow<ref name="Fifty"/> where his book of poems, ''The Northern Maiden'', was published in 1938. His long poem, ''Mother'', followed in 1940.<ref name="Intro"/>

===Career=== During World War II, Yashin was a naval war correspondent.<ref name="Fifty"/> He served with marine battalions during the Siege of Leningrad, with the Volga Fleet at Stalingrad, and with the Black Sea Fleet.<ref name="Intro"/>

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.<ref name="Intro"/>

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.<ref name="Intro"/>

==Awards== * Stalin Prize, 1950, for his poem ''Alena Fomina'' * Order of the Red Star<ref>Awards according to Alexander Yashin article at Ru.Wikipedia.</ref>

==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=== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yashin, Aleksander}} Category:1913 births Category:1968 deaths Category:People from Nikolsky District, Vologda Oblast Category:People from Nikolsky Uyezd Category:Soviet short story writers Category:Soviet poets Category:Russian male poets Category:Soviet male writers Category:Recipients of the Stalin Prize Category:Maxim Gorky Literature Institute alumni