Matusovskii, Mikhail

Born July 10 (23), 1915, in Lugansk. Soviet Russian poet. Member of the CPSU since 1945.

Matusovskii was the son of an office worker. He graduated from the M. Gorky Institute of Literature in 1939. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45, he was a war correspondent for the newspapers at the front. He began publishing in 1934. Matusovskii’s first book of verse was The People of Lugansk (1939, with K. Simonov). He has written the collections The Front (1942), The Wind on Lake Il’men” (1944), Listening to Moscow (1948), The Street of Peace (1951), and Man’s Shadow: A Book of Poems About Hiroshima, Its Struggle and Suffering, Its People and Stones (1968). Matusovskii is a well-known songwriter (“School Waltz,” “Evenings Near Moscow,” and the songs written for films “Faithful Friends,” “Test of Fidelity,” “The Obstinate”). Matusovskii’s poetry and songs have a serious social content and are profoundly lyrical and melodious. He has been awarded three orders and various medals.