Sobolev, Leonid

Born July 9 (21), 1898, in Irkutsk; died Feb. 17, 1971, in Moscow. Soviet Russian writer. Hero of Socialist Labor (1968).

Sobolev graduated from the Petrograd Naval School. He fought in the Civil War of 1918-20 and was a military correspondent for Pravda during the Great Patriotic War (1941-45).

Sobolev began publishing in 1926. His novel Complete Overhaul (vol. 1,1932; new chapters, 1962) depicted the deterioration of the tsarist navy on the eve of World War I (1914-18) and the difficulties in progressive development encountered by the officers and sailors. Life in the navy during peacetime and the heroism of Soviet sailors during the Great Patriotic War were the subjects of the short-story collection Soul of the Sea (1942; State Prize of the USSR, 1943) and of the novella The Green Light (1954). In collaboration with M. Auezov, Sobolev wrote the tragedy Abai (1941); he also wrote many articles on literary and sociopolitical topics. His works have been translated into a number of foreign languages.

Sobolev was president of the organizational committee (later the administrative board) of the Writers’ Union of the RSFSR from 1957 to 1970. He was a deputy to the fifth through eighth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Sobolev was awarded three orders of Lenin, four other orders, and several medals.