Alexander Yashin
Encyclopedia
Alexander Yakovlevich Yashin was a Soviet writer associated with the Village Prose
movement.
.
In the late 1930s he studied at the Gorky
literary institute in Moscow, where his book of poems The Northern Maiden was published in 1938, followed by his long poem Mother (1940).
, 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 consrtuction 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.
Village Prose
Village Prose was a movement in Soviet literature beginning during the Khrushchev Thaw, which included works that focused on the Soviet rural communities. Some point to the critical essays on collectivization in Novyi mir by Valentin Ovechkin as the starting point of Village Prose, though most of...
movement.
Early life
Alexander was born in northern Russia in the village of Bludnovo, Vologda Region, into a poor peasant family. Yashin finished a teacher's training college, and spent some time teaching in a village school. His first poems were published in various district newspapers in 1928-29. His first book of poetry came out in 1934 in ArkhangelskArkhangelsk
Arkhangelsk , formerly known as Archangel in English, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina River near its exit into the White Sea in the north of European Russia. The city spreads for over along the banks of the river...
.
In the late 1930s he studied at the Gorky
Maxim Gorky
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov , primarily known as Maxim Gorky , was a Russian and Soviet author, a founder of the Socialist Realism literary method and a political activist.-Early years:...
literary institute in Moscow, where his book of poems The Northern Maiden was published in 1938, followed by his long poem Mother (1940).
Career
During World War 2, he was a war correspondent with the navy. He served with marine battalions during the Siege of LeningradSiege of Leningrad
The Siege of Leningrad, also known as the Leningrad Blockade was a prolonged military operation resulting from the failure of the German Army Group North to capture Leningrad, now known as Saint Petersburg, in the Eastern Front theatre of World War II. It started on 8 September 1941, when the last...
, with the Volga Fleet at Stalingrad and with the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
Fleet.
After the war he travelled back to the northern villages of his youth, staying with the builders at new consrtuction sites and with the pioneers developing the virgin lands of Altay
Altai Krai
Altai Krai is a federal subject of Russia . It borders with, clockwise from the south, Kazakhstan, Novosibirsk and Kemerovo Oblasts, and the Altai Republic. The krai's administrative center is the city of Barnaul...
. 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.
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.