Chistalev, Veniamin Timofeevich

(also Tima Ven). Born Oct. 8 (20), 1890, in the village of Pomozdino, in what is now the Komi ASSR; died Oct. 13, 1939, in Syktyvkar. Soviet Komi writer.

The son of a peasant, Chistalev became a schoolteacher. His first literary efforts belong to the prerevolutionary period. His nature lyrics glorify the Komi land. In the narrative poem In the Days of the Transformation of the Land (1927), Chistalev depicts the heroism of socialist construction in the north. He is the author of the first essays and short stories written in the Zyrian (Komi) language. Chistalev also translated works by various Russian writers.