Vasilii Ilich Lytkin

(Illia Vas’). Born Dec. 15 (27), 1895, in the city of Ust’-Sysol’sk, present-day Syktyvkar. Soviet Komi poet and Finno-Ugric linguist. Doctor of philological sciences (1947). Academician of the Finnish Academy of Sciences (1969). One of the founders of Soviet Komi literature.

The son of a peasant, Lytkin graduated from Moscow State University in 1925 and, as an external student, passed an examination on Finno-Ugric philology at the (Lorand E’tvös) University of Budapest in 1927. His first poems were published in 1918. He wrote poetry, tales in verse, and children’s verse. His major work, the poem They’re Coming (1927), is dedicated to the heroes of the Civil War of 1918-20 in the Komi region.

Lytkin translated the poetry of A. S. Pushkin, F. I. Tiutchev, S. Petofi, V. V. Mayakovsky, D. Bednyi, and K. I. Chukovskii into the Komi language. Lytkin’s scholarly research was devoted to the Old Permian literary texts, the ancient history of the Komi language, and the dialects of the modern Permian languages.