Dmitrii Borisovich Kedrin

Born Jan. 22 (Feb. 4), 1907, in Bogodukhovskii Rudnik, present-day settlement of Shcheglovka, Donbas; died Sept. 18, 1945, in the settlement of Tarasovka, near Moscow. Soviet Russian poet.

Kedrin’s work was first published in 1924. His first poetry collection was Witnesses (1940). His poems deal with nature, contemporary themes (“Doll,” 1932; “Duel,” 1933), and history (the ballad The Master Builders, 1938; “Song About Alena Staritsa,” 1939; the narrative poem Steed, 1940). They are full of deep lyricism and are imbued with national historical color. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45, Kedrin wrote poems about the homeland and how it was moving toward victory while overcoming difficult ordeals. Rembrandt (1940), a drama in verse, is one of his best works.