Gerasimenko, Konstantin Mikhailovich

Gerasimenko, Konstantin Mikhailovich 

Born Apr. 28 (May 11), 1907, in the village of Prikhod’ki, in present-day Poltava Oblast; died September 1942, on the Southern Front. Soviet Ukrainian poet and playwright.

Gerasimenko was born into the family of a teacher. His first work was published in 1932. He is the author of several collections of poetry, including Growth (1933), September (1935), Memory (1938), The Road (1939), and Portrait (1941). He took part in the Great Patriotic War. A collection of poems by Gerasimenko entitled On the Southern Front was published in Russian in Ufa in 1942. Vivid images of Soviet people with their simple and heroic lives appear in his poetry. Colloquial intonation and humor are combined with lyrical and philosophical reflections. Gerasimenko’s plays By the High Road (1939) and The Legend (1941) were produced on the stage.

WORKS

Vybrane. [Poetry. Foreword by M. Ryl’s’kyi.] Kiev, 1955.
Poezii. Foreword by M. Ryl’s’kyi. Kiev, 1966.
In Russian translation:
Rasskaz pro pesniu: Stikhi. [Introductory article by M. Ryl’s’kyi.] Moscow, 1958.