Medynskii, Grigorii Aleksandrovich

(pseudonym of G. A. Pokrovskii). Born Jan. 30 (Feb. 11), 1899, in the city of Kozel’sk. Soviet Russian writer. Son of a priest.

From 1919 to 1929, Medynskii was an educator, working from 1922 to 1928 in the campaign to eliminate child homelessness. He began to publish in 1925 and is the author of the novels Samstroi (1930) and The Ninth “A” (1939), the novellas A Tale of Youth (1954) and Honor (1959), the play The Life and Crime of Anton Shelestov (1961, written in collaboration with V. Tokarev), and the publicistic books based on documentary material Without Lowering the Eyes (1961; 2nd ed., 1963), Command Good Fortune (1963, written in collaboration with V. Petrov), and A Difficult Book (1964). Medynskii’s best-known work is the novel Mar’ia (parts 1-2, 1946-49; State Prize of the USSR, 1950), about the heroic labor of kolkhoz women during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45.

Medynskii’s interests—fiction and publicism—have been concentrated primarily on acute problems of morality, social pedagogy, and the formation of the human personality. His works have been translated into a number of foreign languages. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and various medals.