- Robert Rozhdestvensky
Robert Ivanovich Rozhdestvensky ( _ru. Роберт Иванович Рождественский; June 20, 1932 – August 19, 1994) was a Russian poet who in the broke with the Social Realism in 1950s–1960s and, along with such poets as Voznesensky, Yevtushenko, and Akhmadulina, pioneered a newer, fresher, and freer poetry in the
Soviet Union .Life
Robert Rozhdestvensky was born to a military family in the village of
Kosikha inAltai Krai . Following the outbreak of World War II, with both parents in the army, he found himself in the orphanage. After graduating high school, he attentdedPetrozavodsk University , where he began writing poetry (the first ones were published in 1950). He quit the University in order to attendMaxim Gorky Literature Institute , which he finished in 1956.In the time of the
Khrushchev Thaw he worked alongside Voznesensky, Yevtushenko, and Akhmadulina. They broke with the Social Realism, and wrote emotional, lyric poems. Despite this, Rozhdestvenski was always careful not to criticize the government, and thus remained in official favor through the 60's and 70's, even being awarded theLenin Prize in 1979.Rozhdestvensky died on
August 19 ,1994 inPeredelkino .Works
*"Flags of Spring" (Флаги весны), 1955
*"To My Contemporary" (Ровеснику), 1962
*"Dedication" (Посвящение), 1970
*"In Twenty Years" (За двадцать лет), 1973
*"Insomnia" (Бессонница), 1991
*"Alyoshka's Thoughts" (Алёшкины мысли), poems for children, 1991
*"Last poems of Robert Rozhdestvensky" was published after his death.External links
* [http://www.ozon.ru/context/detail/id/255423/ Роберт Иванович Рождественский] , in Russian.
* [http://spintongues.msk.ru/rozhdestvensky.html Robert Rozhdestvensky's Poem 'MONUMENT TO SOLDIER ALYOSHA IN PLOVDIV'
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
