Vasilii Petrovich Minko

Born Jan. 1 (14), 1902, in the village of Minkovka, present-day Valki Raion, Kharkov Oblast. Ukrainian Soviet writer. Member of the CPSU since 1942.

The son of a peasant, Minko attended the Kharkov Institute of Public Education from 1929 to 1931 and fought in the Great Patriotic War. His first works, plays for amateur theaters, appeared in 1924, and since 1927 he has been publishing essays, short stories, and novellas. Among his best early works are the collection Local Authorities (1928) and the novellas Belladona (1929) and larina Cherkas (1936). The novellas Above the Khorol River (1949) and Clear Dawns (1951) and the short-story collection A Full Cup (1950) depict life in the postwar Ukrainian countryside. His satirical comedy Without Naming Names (1953) was staged in theaters throughout the country. Minko also wrote the comedies At the Farmstead Near Dikan ’ka (1958), Bridegroom From Argentina (1960), A Comedy With Two Heart Attacks (1966), Let’s Not (1967), and Attention, Cockatoo (1972). His autobiographical novella My Minkovka, written between 1962 and 1969, was published in Russian translation in 1973, and his memoirs Red Parnassus appeared in 1971. He has been awarded three orders, as well as many medals.