Lench, Leonid

(pseudonym of L. S. Popov). Born July 20 (Aug. 2), 1905, in the village of Morozovka, now in Krasnyi Raion, Smolensk Oblast. Soviet Russian writer. Member of the CPSU since 1953. Son of a military physician.

Lench studied in the department of economics at the University of Rostov (1923–25). His works were first published in 1922. He participated in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45. He is the author of humorous and satirical short stories, feuilletons, and skits (collected in such books as First Smile, 1936; Emergency Ration 1944; A Ticklish Request, 1959; and Hard Service, 1967). He also wrote a full-length play, Pavel Grekov (1939; with B. Voitekhov), and the novella Black Shoulder Straps (1961), about events during the Civil War of 1918–20 in southern Russia. Lench was awarded two orders and several medals.