Petr Osipov

Born Jan. 15 (27), 1900, in the village of Kudemery, present-day Kozlovka Raion, Chuvash ASSR. Soviet Chuvash writer; one of the founders of Chuvash drama. Honored Art Worker of the Chuvash ASSR (1940). Honored Physician of the RSFSR (1945). Member of the CPSU since 1946.

Osipov graduated from the department of medicine of the University of Kazan in 1924. The life and struggle of the Chuvash people and their efforts to build a new life during the first years of Soviet power are described in the plays Kuzhar (staged 1920), Aidar (staged 1924; Russian translation, 1964), Weekday Symphony (staged 1935; Russian translation, 1937), and Cherished Dream (staged 1960). For many years Osipov worked in the K. V. Ivanov Chuvash Theater in Cheboksary as an actor, director, and translator of Russian plays and classic foreign plays.

One of Osipov’s best works is the novel The El’geevs (1973), which is about the October Revolution of 1917 and the events of the first year of Soviet power in the land of the Chuvash. Osipov has been awarded two orders and a number of medals.