Slavin, Lev Isaevich

Born Oct. 15 (27), 1896, in Odessa. Soviet Russian writer.

Slavin fought in World War I (1914–18) and the Civil War (1918-20). During the Great Patriotic War (1941–45) he served as a war correspondent for the newspapers Krasnaia zvezda and Izvestiia. Slavin first published his works in 1922. He has written the novel The Heir (1930), the novellas My Fellow Countrymen (1942; film version entitled Two Fighters 1943) and On the Other Side of the Hill (1958), and many short stories and sketches. He has also written many plays, including The Intervention (1932), which gives a clear picture of Odessa during the first few years of the revolution and the international unity of the working class.

Slavin has written screenplays for the motion pictures The Private Life of Petr Vinogradov (1935), Son of Mongolia (1936; with B. Lapin and Z. Khatsrevin), and The Return of Maksim (1937; with G. Kozintsev and L. Trauberg). He has also published reminiscences about contemporary writers. Many of Sla-vin’s works have been translated into foreign languages. Slavin has been awarded three orders and various medals.