Shefner V.S. (1914-2002), poet

Categories / Literature. Book Publishing/Personalia
SHEFNER Vadim Sergeevich (1914, Petrograd - 2002, St. Petersburg), poet, prose writer and author of memoirs. He spent his childhood years in Petrograd, where he lived at a children's home, went to the school of industrial training, later continued his studies at the Workers' Faculty of Leningrad State University. His occupations included being a physical training, a foundry moulder, a librarian etc. He started publishing poetry from 1933. His first collection of poems The Light Shore appeared in 1940. Shefner took part in the defence of Leningrad, where he published his second collection of poetry entitled The Defence (1943). All the following works of Shefner are pierced with theme of war. Altogether he issued nearly 40 volumes of poetry and fiction. The plots of his stories and narratives are often based on the events from his own life. Shefner, while adding lyrical touches to his prose, made reality and fantasy blend together in his narration (cf. narratives Girl at the Precipice, or Kovrigin's Chronicles, 1964; Belated Shooter, or the Wings of a Provincial, 1966; novel The Debtor's Hovel, 1981, etc.). The action of some Shefner's works is set on Vasilievsky Island; among them his narrative The Sister of Grief (1963-68) is generally recognised as one of his greatest works. He used to live at 34 Lenina Street. He was buried at the cemetery in Kuzmolovo village of Leningrad region.

References: Кузьмичев И. С. Вадим Шефнер: Очерк творчества. Л., 1968.

T. M. Dvinyatina. Shefner Vadim Sergeevich
Lenina St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 34
Кузьмичев И. С. Вадим Шефнер: Очерк творчества. Л., 1968