Sannikov, Grigorii Aleksandrovich

Born Aug. 30 (Sept. 11), 1899, in Iaransk, in what is now Kirov Oblast; died Jan. 16, 1969, in Moscow. Soviet Russian poet. Member of the CPSU from 1917.

Sannikov attended Shaniavskii’s People’s University. He participated in the October Revolution of 1917, the Civil War (1918–20), and the Great Patriotic War (1941–45). His first collection of verse, Lyric Poetry, was published in 1921. Sannikov was one of the organizers of the literary association known as The Smithy (Kuznitsa). In works such as the narrative poem 1917 (1927) and the poems “Farewell to the Kerosene Lamp” (1928) and “To My Contemporaries” (1957), he discusses the hopes and experiences of his generation. Themes of travel and of the Soviet and foreign East also play an important role in his poetry, especially in the anthologies In Commemoration of the Ocean (1928) and The East (1935) and in the novel in verse A Guest of the Egyptians (1933). During his last years, Sannikov composed a cycle of poems about space travel. His lyric poetry is civic-minded and optimistic.

Sannikov was awarded the Order of the Red Star and various medals.