Usenko, Pavel

Born Jan. 10 (23), 1902, in the village of Zaochepskoe, in what is now Dnepropetrovsk Ob-last; died Aug. 4, 1975, in Kiev. Soviet Ukrainian poet. Member of the CPSU from 1925.

Usenko studied at the Kharkov Institute of the Red Professors from 1929 to 1931. He fought in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45. From 1926 to 1932 he was head of Molodniak, an association of Komsomol writers.

Usenko’s work was first published in 1922. He is the author of numerous collections of poetry, including Komsomol (1925), The Lyric of Battle (1934), For the Ukraine (1941), Out of the Flame of Struggle (1943), Sons (1947), Leaves and Meditations (1956), From the Notebooks of Life (1959), and The Unfading Flower of Springs (1960). Other works include the narrative poem Six (1940), literary sketches, and poems for children. Usenko’s lyric poetry, rooted in folkloric tradition, is devoted to the revolutionary past and to the daily life of Soviet youth in battle and at work.

Usenko was awarded the Order of Lenin, seven other orders, and various medals.