Valentin Dmitrievich Berestov

Valentin Dmitrievich Berestov – a Soviet and Russian writer and translator, a lyric poet. A memoirist, a Pushkin scholar, a researcher. He was born on April 1, 1928 in Meshchovsk (Kaluga Oblast). He learned to read at the age of four. During the Great Patriotic War the Berestov family was evacuated to Tashkent, where he became acquainted with Anna Akhmatova and Korney Chukovsky. In 1944, thanks to Akhmatova's recommendations, he moved to Moscow, where he graduated from the school for gifted children in Gorki Leninskiye, and then from the Faculty of History at Moscow State University and completed postgraduate studies at the Institute of Ethnography.

Berestov's first publications appeared in the magazine Smena in 1946. As a student, he took part in archaeological excavations in Novgorod and Khorezm (1947). His first collection of poems 'Otplytie' (Departure) and his first children's book 'Pro Mashinu' (About the Car) were published in 1957. They were followed by numerous collections of poems and fairy tales: 'Cheerful Summer', 'Pictures in Puddles', 'Smile' and others. Valentin Dmitrievich Berestov was a member of the Union of Writers of the USSR. He died on April 15, 1998 in Moscow and was buried at Khovanskoye Cemetery.