Nikolai Trofimovich Fedorenko

Born Oct. 27 (Nov. 9), 1912, in Piatigorsk. Soviet Russian philologist and Orientalist. State and public figure. Professor (1953); corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1958). Member of the CPSU from 1943.

The son of a worker, Fedorenko graduated from the Moscow Institute of Oriental Studies in 1937. In 1954 he became an ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the USSR. He also served as deputy minister of foreign affairs (1955–58), ambassador to Japan (1958–62), permanent representative of the USSR to the United Nations, and representative of the USSR on the UN Security Council (1963–68). In 1970, Fedorenko became editor in chief of the journal Inostrannaia literatura (Foreign Literature). He is the author of works on the history of Chinese and Japanese culture, Chinese classical and modern literature, and the theory of literature and art. Fedorenko became secretary of the administrative board of the Writers’ Union of the USSR in 1971. He was a member of the Central Auditing Commission of the CPSU from 1966 to 1971.

Fedorenko is an honorary member of the China Research Institute in Tokyo (1961) and an honorary academician of the Florence Academy of Fine Arts (1975). He has been awarded two Orders of Lenin, four other orders, and several medals.