Serafim Emelianovich Vechkanov

Born July 24 (Aug. 6), 1914, in the village of Kakino, in present-day Gagino Raion, Gorky Oblast; died Oct. 20, 1965, in Saransk. Soviet Erzia-Mordvin poet. Member of the CPSU from 1943.

Vechkanov took part in the Great Patriotic War. He began to publish his works in 1932. He is the author of such anthologies as Beginning of a Song (1933), My Star (1940), A Wreath (1946), Verses (1952), and My Dear Little Sun (1955) and of such narrative poems as Concert, Where Our Life Is Better, and Grandfather Bogdan.