Dudin M.A. (1916-1993), poet

Categories / Literature. Book Publishing/Personalia
DUDIN Mikhail Alexandrovich (1916-1993, St. Petersburg), poet, public figure. In 1937 entered the evening department of Faculty of Literature of the Ivanov Pedagogical Institute; in 1939 he was conscripted into the Army. From 1940 the life of Dudin is closely connected with Leningrad. Took part in the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-40 and the defence of Hanko Island. Contributed to army newspapers, in the besieged Leningrad worked in the editorial office of the newspaper Na strazhe Rodiny, where he actually lived (in the building of General Staff on Palace Square). The publication of a selection of poems in 1941 in the journal Zvezda, produced on the initiative of N. S. Tikhonov, became crucial for Dudin's creative life. His poetical principles were formed in the war years; his most prolific period fell on the decades that followed (including Book of Lyrics, 1986) when he gained public recognition (Hero of Socialist Labour, 1976; State Prize of the USSR, 1981); new lyrical intonations and new social and political phenomena were developed in the works of the late 1980s - early 1990s (the book To God along the Road of Blood, published posthumously in 1995). Translated poems of peoples of the USSR. Worked in Leningrad Committee for Defending Peace, took active part in lives of many Leningrad writers, and supported a series of cultural events in Leningrad, sometimes in spite of the opposition of the authorities. Initiated the creation of the Green Belt of Glory around Leningrad and many other actions to perpetuate the memory of the World War II and commemorate Leningrad writers. The author of the inscriptions on propylaea at the entrance to Piskarevskoe Memorial Cemetery, on the monument to the heroic defenders of Leningrad on Pobedy Square and others. In Leningrad literary circles Dudin's numerous verse jokes, impromptus, epigrams (collected in the book Naughty Rhymes, 1992) were extremely popular. Lived at 8 Soyuza Pechatnikov Street and 8 Мalaya Posadskaya Street (1964-89 Bratyev Vasilyevykh Street).

References: Лавров В. А. Михаил Дудин. Л., 1988; Будьте, пожалуйста!: Друзья вспоминают М. Дудина / Ред.-сост. Н. Б. Банк, Б. Г. Друян. СПб., 1995.

D. N. Cherdakov. Dudin Mikhail Alexandrovich
Tikhonov Nikolay Semenovich
Dvortsovaya Square/Saint Petersburg, city
Malaya Posadskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 8
Soyuza Pechatnikov St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 8
Лавров В. А. Михаил Дудин. Л., 1988
"Будьте, пожалуйста!": Друзья вспоминают М. Дудина / Ред.-сост. Н. Б. Банк, Б. Г. Друян. СПб., 1995 Zvezda (The Star), journal
The Green Belt of Glory
Heroic Defenders of Leningrad, Monument to