Mikhail Petrovich Petrov

Born Nov. 8 (21), 1905, in the village of Monashevo, now in Elabuga Raion, Tatar ASSR; died Nov. 29, 1955, in Izhevsk. Soviet Udmurt writer. Member of the CPSU from 1926.

Petrov took part in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45. His first collection of lyric poems was The Source (1934). Many of his lyrics have become folk songs. He wrote several narrative poems, including the well-known epic Italmas (1945), staged as a ballet with music by G. Korepanov-Kamskii. Petrov also wrote plays, including The Farmhand (1931) and Through Fire (1932), as well as the novella Before the Dawn (1952). One of the best works of Udmurt prose is Petrov’s novel Staryi Multan (1954; Russian translation, 1956), whose subject is the trial of the Udmurt peasants of the village of Staryi Multan, who were defended by V. G. Korolenko.

Petrov translated many classics of Russian, Soviet Russian, and foreign literature into Udmurt. He was awarded three orders and several medals.