Kuratov, Ivan

Born July 6 (18), 1839, in the village of Kibra, now Kuratovo, in the Komi ASSR; died Nov. 17 (29), 1875, in the city of Vernyi, now Alma-Ata. Komi poet and linguist; the founder of Komi literature.

Kuratov studied at the Vologda Theological Seminary from 1854 to 1860 and then became a teacher in Ust’-Sysol’sk. In his later years Kuratov lived in Middle Asia, where, after his graduation from the Kazan School of Regimental Auditors in 1866, he was sent to do military forensic work. Only a few of his poems were published during his lifetime. Kuratov’s poetry sprang from the ideas of the Russian Revolutionary Democrats; he dreamed of serving the people in the struggle against social and national oppression.

Kuratov created a gallery of national types: he used bitter sarcasm for his pictures of the oppressors of the people—the bloodsucker-kulak, the bureaucrat, the priest, and the monk— and expressed sympathy for the hopeless lot of the worker they crushed. The poet held dear those who championed the people’s cause. Kuratov translated Russian poetry and world classics into his native language.