Sergei Zalygin

Born Nov. 23 (Dec. 6), 1913, in the village of Durasovka, Sterlitamak District, in present-day Bashkir ASSR. Soviet Russian writer.

Zalygin graduated from the Omsk Agricultural Institute in 1939. He worked as a hydrotechnical engineer and hydrolo-gist at the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. He began to publish in 1936. His first book was Stories (1941). He is the author of the books of sketches In The Spring of 1954 and Red Clover (1955) and the satirical novella’The Witnesses” (1956). His novel Altai Paths (1962) raises questions of the interrelations of man and nature and science and society. The novella “On the Irtysh”(From the Chronicle of the Village Krutye Luki, 1964) is devoted to the events of the 1930’s and the formation of the kolkhozes. By exposing “extremists,” the writer affirms the idea of the great humaneness and equity of socialism.

The Salty Dell (parts 1–2, 1967–68; State Prize of the USSR, 1968) is a novel about fictitious heroes from the his-tory of the Civil War in Siberia. The basic plot device of the novel is the clash between its two main protagonists—the humane commander in chief Meshcheriakov and the cruel, power-loving Brusenkov. Zalygin’s writing is characterized by combinations of artistic vision and methods of scientific research, as well as documentary and yet vivid descriptions. He also published a number of critical literary works. Since 1969, Zalygin has been one of the secretaries of the board of the Writers’ Union of the RSFSR. He has been awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and a number of medals.