Elvi Aulikki Sinervo

Born May 4, 1912, in Helsinki. Finnish writer and translator.

Sinervo studied at the University of Helsinki. She was one of the organizers of the literary society Kiila (Wedge) and was imprisoned from 1941 to 1944 by the reactionary government for taking part in the organization of the Society for Peace and Friendship With the USSR.

Sinervo’s collection of short stories Poems About Sörnäinen (1937) defined her critical attitude toward bourgeois reality. Individualism is condemned in the novel The Blacksmith of the Burning Village (1939). She opposed fascism in the collections of poetry Clouds (1944), O, Black-winged Bird (1950), and The Maiden’s Spring (1956). At the center of the novella Comrade, Be Faithful! (1947) is the awakening of political self-awareness among the Finnish workers. Participants in the resistance movement are the heroes of the collection of short stories Ascent of the Mountain (1948) and the drama The World Is Still Young (1952; Russian translation, 1960). Other works by Sinervo include the novel Viljami Exchanged (1946) and the novella Little A lesha (1946) about M. Gorky.

Sinervo received a State Prize in 1947, 1949, and 1951.