Yevtushenko, Yevgeny, << `yehv` too SHEHNG koh, yehv GEH nee >> (1933-2017), was a Russian poet. Most of his works were directed toward people who grew up in the Soviet Union after World War II ended in 1945. Yevtushenko was a master of technique and used straightforward language.
Yevtushenko became famous in the West as one of the first writers in the Soviet Union to criticize Soviet society. He won worldwide fame with “Babi Yar” (1961), a tribute to Soviet Jews massacred by the Nazis in 1941 (see Babyn Yar). The poem was remarkable for its open attack on anti-Semitism, a topic avoided by most Soviet writers. His works include a novel in verse and prose, Wild Berries (1981); the long poem Fuku (1985); and The Collected Poems, 1952-1990 (1991). He also wrote an autobiography, Don’t Die Before You’re Dead (1993). Yevtushenko was born on July 18, 1933, in Zima, near Irkutsk, in southern Siberia. He died on April 1, 2017.
