Finn, Konstantin Iakovlevich

Finn, Konstantin Iakovlevich 

(pen name of K. la. Finn-Khal’fin). Born May 19 (June 1), 1904, in Moscow; died there Jan. 3, 1975. Soviet Russian writer. Member of the CPSU from 1961.

Finn fought in the Civil War of 1918–20. He attended the Higher Literary Courses from 1926 to 1929. He began publishing in 1926. His works include the short-story collection My Friend (1930), the novel The Third Gear (1930), and the novella The Great Days (1933). The novella The Outskirts (1932; film of the same name, 1933) depicted the life of the prerevolutionary urban poor. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45, Finn was a war correspondent for Izvestiia.

Finn is the author of more than 40 plays, including Honesty (staged 1950), Anna’s Mistake (staged 1955), The Beginning of Life (staged 1958), Diary of a Woman (staged 1962), Troubled Happiness (staged 1964), Moscow at Night (staged 1967), and Woman Without an Age (staged 1969). In these works he dealt with problems of life and morals in contemporary society.

Finn was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor and several medals.

WORKS

Dramy i komedii. Moscow, 1957.
Rasskazy i povesti mnogikh let. Moscow, 1969.
Vtoraia stolitsa: Povest’. Moscow, 1971.
P’esy. Moscow, 1972.

REFERENCES

Grossman, B. “Pisatel’ i okraina.” Novyi mir, 1933, no. 10.
Serebrianskii, M. ‘“Povesti i rasskazy’ K. Finna.” Khudozhestvennaia literatura, 1933, no. 6.
Maizus, S. “Anshlagi, anshlagi. . ..” Teatr, 1966, no. 3.
Babaevskii, S. [”Privetstvennoe slovo v sviazi s 70-letiem K. la. Finna.”] Literatumaia gazeta, June 12, 1974.