Rugoev, Iaakko

(Iaakko Rugoev). Born Apr. 15, 1918, in the village of Suojarvi, now in the Karelian ASSR. Soviet Karelian writer. Member of the CPSU since 1943.

Rugoev began publishing in 1934; he graduated from the Petrozavodsk Teachers’ Institute in 1939. He fought in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45. He has published several books of verse, the short-story collections Revenge (1943), The Land Where Juniper Grows (1964), and Big Simon (1975), the novel Reedy Shore (1974), the novella Pekka and Anja (1975), and the play The Lights of Marikoska (1948). Rugoev’s works, which deal with Karelia’s past and present, are truthful and optimistic. He has translated The Tale of Igor’s Campaign into Finnish (1953).

Rugoev was chairman of the administrative board of the Writers’ Union of the Karelian ASSR from 1953 to 1957 and from 1967 to 1971. In 1970 he became secretary of the administrative board of the Writers’ Union of the RSFSR. He has been awarded four orders and several medals.