Valentina Oseeva

(Oseeva Khmeleva). Born Apr. 15 (28), 1902, in Kiev; died July 5, 1969, in Moscow. Soviet Russian writer.

A teacher for many years, Oseeva published her first work in 1937. She is the author of collections of poetry, fairy tales, and stories for children, including The Orange Cat (1940), The Magic Word (1944), My Friend (1950), A Simple Matter (1956), and Blue Leaves (1965). The trilogy Vasek Trubachev and His Comrades (books 1–2, 1947–51; State prize of the USSR, 1952; book 3, 1952) is devoted to the heroic deeds of Pioneers during the Great Patriotic War. Oseeva also wrote the autobiographical novella Dinka (1959). Her books have been translated into a number of the languages of the peoples of the USSR.