Nikolai Zotovich Biryukov

Nikolai Zotovich Biryukov was a Russian Soviet writer and a recipient of the Stalin Prize. Nikolai Zotovich Biryukov was born on 1 (14) February 1912 in Orekhovo-Zuyevo into the family of a textile worker. In 1919 the family moved to the Volga region because the factory where his father worked had stopped operating. The future writer witnessed the events of the Civil War and the drought of 1921, which later were reflected in his novel 'Na khutoryakh' ("On the Farmsteads") (1938). In 1922 the Biryukovs returned to Orekhovo-Zuyevo, where ten-year-old Nikolai took part in creating one of the first Pioneer detachments. In 1925 he joined the Komsomol and began working at the factory.

In the autumn of 1930 Biryukov worked on the construction of the Dulyovo plant. While helping to deal with an accident in icy water he became seriously ill and at eighteen was left confined to bed, retaining only the mobility of his hands. In 1931 he decided to devote himself to literature. In 1932 he won second prize in the All-Union competition for young poets for the poem "Pobed ne schest!" ("There Are Countless Victories!"). From 1936 to 1940 he studied by correspondence at the Gorky Literary Institute, while also attending the Institute of Foreign Languages. His first novel, 'Na khutoryakh', was published in the magazine 'Oktyabr' in 1938.

 

During the Great Patriotic War Biryukov wrote short stories and sketches about the courage of Soviet people, many of which became very popular. In 1942 he began work on the novel 'Chayka' ("The Seagull"), which was published in 1945 and gained enormous popularity, including at the front. The novel was translated into many languages and published abroad. In 1949 the novel 'Vody Naryna' ("The Waters of the Naryn") about the construction of the Great Fergana Canal followed; to write it Biryukov traveled around Central Asia. In 1959 he published the historical-revolutionary novel 'Skvoz' vikhri vraghebnyye' ("Through Hostile Whirlwinds"). Biryukov spent the last ten years of his life in Crimea. Nikolai Zotovich Biryukov died in Simferopol on 31 January 1966.