Yevtushenko, Yevgeny

Yevtushenko, Yevgeny (Aleksandrovich)

(born July 18, 1933, Zima, Irkutsk oblast, Russian S.F.S.R.) Russian poet. The descendant of Ukrainians exiled to Siberia, he grew up in Moscow and in the small town that is the setting of his first important narrative poem, Zima Junction (1956). He became the spokesman for the post-Stalin generation of Russian poets with his internationally publicized demands for greater artistic freedom, which signaled an easing of Soviet control over artists in the late 1950s and '60s. He revived brash, slangy language and traditions such as love lyrics and personal lyrics, frowned upon under Stalinism. His poem “Baby Yar” (1961) was an attack on lingering Soviet anti-Semitism; his most ambitious cycle of poems is Bratsk Station (1966). He became famous worldwide for his passionate recitations.