Ruchev, Boris Aleksandrovich

Born June 2(15), 1913, in Troitsk, in what is now Cheliabinsk Oblast; died Oct. 24, 1973, in Magnitogorsk. Soviet Russian poet. Member of the CPSU from 1970.

Ruch’ev was first published in 1928. Upon completing school, he helped construct the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Works, and he labored as a carpenter, concrete worker, and journalist. In his first book of poetry Second Homeland (1933), Ruch’ev glorified the heroism of socialist labor. Between 1937 and 1957 he wrote the narrative poem The Invisible One, about the people fighting against fascism, and a cycle of poems about the great force of love and the courage of working people.

The shaping of the character of the progressive worker was the principal theme of Ruch’ev’s poetry and was reflected in the narrative poem Liubava (1963) and the poetry collection The Little Red Sun (1960; State Prize of the RSFSR, 1967), as well as in the collections Lyric Poetry (1958), Verses and Narrative Poems (1963), and Magnetic Mountain (1964). Ruch’ev was awarded the Order of the October Revolution, two other orders, and various medals.