Aleksandr Tvardovsky

Aleksandr Tvardovsky
Born	21 June [O.S. 8 June] 1910 Zagorye, Russian Empire
Died	18 December 1971(1971-12-18) (aged 61) Vatutinki, Krasnaya Pakhra, Podolsky District, Moscow Oblast, Soviet Union
Occupation	Poet, Editor
Notable works	Vasili Tyorkin Stovemakers

Aleksandr Trifonovich Tvardovsky (Russian: Алекса́ндр Три́фонович Твардо́вский; IPA: [ɐlʲɪkˈsandr ˈtrʲifənəvʲɪtɕ tvɐrˈdofskʲɪj]; 21 June [O.S. 8 June] 1910 – 18 December 1971) was a Soviet poet and writer, chief editor of Novy Mir literary magazine from 1950 to 1954 and 1958 to 1970. His name has also been rendered in English as Aleksandr Trifonovich Tvardovski, Aleksandr Tvardovski, and Alexander Tvardovsky (though "Aleksandr Tvardovsky" is by far the most common spelling).

Tvardovsky was born into a Russian family in Zagorye, Smolensk Governorate. At the time of his birth, the family lived on a farm that his father had purchased in installments from The Peasant Land Bank. Tvardovsky's father, the son of a landless soldier, was a blacksmith by trade. The farm was situated on poor land, but Tvardovsky's father loved it and was proud of what he had acquired through years of hard labor. He transmitted this love and pride to Aleksandr.

Tvardovsky's father was a well-read and intelligent man who often read to Aleksandr and the rest of the family. From an early age Aleksandr became familiar with the works of Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Mikhail Lermontov, Nikolay Nekrasov and others. He began composing poetry while still very young. At age 13 he showed some of his poems to a young teacher who gave him misleading criticism, telling him that poetry should be written as unintelligibly as possible. His first published poem was "A New Hut", which was printed in the newspaper Smolensk Village. After its publication he collected his poems and showed them to the poet Mikhail Isakovsky. Aleksandr later acknowledged Isakovsky's influence, saying that he had been the only Soviet poet who had had a beneficial effect on him.

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