Krutilin, Sergei Andreevich

Born Oct. 2, 1921, in the village of Delekhovo, in present-day Skopin Raion, Riazan’ Oblast. Soviet Russian writer. Member of the CPSU (1945).

Krutilin was the son of a peasant. He fought in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45. In 1947 he graduated from the department of philology of Moscow State University and in the same year made his debut as a writer. He is the author of the novella The Springs (1953), the series of essays City on the Viatka River (1959), the collection of short stories and essays Around the Bend (1961), the novel The Snowdrops (1961), and the novellas Lieutenant Artiukhov (1968), A Slanting Rain (1969), The Old Rookery (1970), and Beyond the Hillside (1971). The novel Lipiagi (books 1–3, 1963–65; Gorky State Prize of the RSFSR, 1967) presents a historical and social cross section of the Riazan’ countryside during the last 50 years with an analysis of folk characters and a generalized picture of the Soviet village. The novel’s ostensibly calm and meditative narrative style stands in contrast to its violent conflicts and dramatic tension. In 1973, Krutilin published the novella PustosheV. His books have been translated into foreign languages and into the languages of USSR nationali-ties. He has received two orders and also a number of medals.