Afanasii Dmitrievich Salynskii

Born Sept. 9, 1920, in Smolensk. Soviet Russian playwright. Member of the CPSU since 1942. Served in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45.

Salynskii graduated from the Advanced Courses in Literature in 1956. He became a journalist in 1939. His first play was The Brothers (1947). Contemporary ethical conflicts are the subject matter for the plays Dangerous Fellow Traveler (1952), The Forgotten Friend (1955), Male Conversations (1967), Mariia (1969), and Summer Outings (1973), and for such satirical comedies as Falsehood for a Narrow Circle (1963).

Episodes in the struggle for the establishment of Soviet power in the Altai are re-created in Salynskii’s drama Bread and Roses (1957). Soviet patriots are heroically portrayed in the dramas The Drummer Girl (1958) and Pebbles on a Palm (1965). Salynskii’s plays are distinguished by dynamic action and dialogue. They are widely staged in theaters both within and outside the USSR. Salynskii also wrote film scenarios, including A Man With a Future (1961) and The Exploded Hell (1967).

Salynskii became secretary of the executive board of the Writers’ Union of the USSR in 1959 and editor in chief of the magazine Teatr in 1972. Salynskii has been awarded two orders and various medals.