Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Yevgeny Yevtushenko, (1933- ). Russian poet and writer. He was already publishing poems in journals at the age of 17, but made his name in the ‘thaw’ years that followed Stalin’s death. His works mark a return to personal rather than political poetry in the Soviet Union. The long poems Babiy Yar (1961), concerned with the massacre of Ukrainian Jews by the Nazis, and Bratsk Station (1966) were international successes. With their strong rhythms and narrative drive, Yevtushenko’s poems are ideally suited to the author’s flamboyant style of public performance. He has been an outspoken commentator on topical issues for some 40 years (although, with hindsight, his attitude to the communist regime has been criticized as over-timid).
