Konstantin Vasilevich Ivanov

Born May 15 (27), 1890, in the village of Slakbash, in present-day Belebei Raion, Bashkir ASSR; died there Mar. 13 (26), 1915. Chuvash poet.

Ivanov was the son of a peasant. As a teacher, he helped write primers and textbooks for the Chuvash schools. He began his literary work during the Revolution of 1905–07 by translating revolutionary songs and Russian literary works (the poems of M. Iu. Lermontov, A.V. Kol’tsov, and N.A. Nekrasov) into Chuvash. He is the author of the verse fairy tale The Two Daughters, the ballads The Iron Brake and The Widow, the tale The Hungry, the tragedy Devil’s Slave, and topical verses.

Ivanov’s major work is the lyrical epic poem Narspi (published in Simbirsk in the collection Fairy Tales and Legends of the Chuvash People, 1908), about the tragic fate of Chuvash women deprived of their human rights. The poem was made into an opera of the same name (music, G. Khirbiu). Ivanov’s works, imbued with a folk spirit and democratic convictions, are classics of Chuvash poetry. Ivanov was the first Chuvash poet to use syllabotonic verse (in translations from Russian). His works have been translated into many languages of the USSR.