Ivan Nekhoda

Born May 24 (June 6), 1910, in the village of Alekseevka, in what is now Valki Raion, Khar’kov Oblast; died Oct. 17, 1963, in Kiev. Soviet Ukrainian poet. Member of the CPSU from 1942.

The son of a peasant, Nekhoda graduated from the Khar’kov Institute of Public Education in 1932 and from the screenwriting department of the All-Union State Institute of Cinematography in 1939. He served in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45. First appearing in print in 1925, Nekhoda later published collections of lyric poetry, including The Beginning of a Song (1937), Dnieper Country (1939), The Southern Front (1943), Forest Dwellings (1944), and The Road to a Festival (1945). Nekhoda’s lyrical and narrative poems reflect the attitudes of his contemporaries. His novel in verse Who Sows the Wind (1959) deals with the fate of the war generation. Much of his poetry was written for children. Nekhoda’s works have been translated into the languages of the peoples of the USSR. He was awarded three orders and various medals.