Mikhail Bubennov

Born Nov. 8 (21), 1909, in the village of Vtoroe Polomoshnovo, now in Altai Krai. Soviet Russian writer. Member of the CPSU since 1951.

Bubennov published his first works in 1927. He wrote the tales Thundering Year (1932) and Immortality (1940) and the short-story collection At Floodtide (1940). His most popular work is the novel White Birch (book one, 1947, awarded the State Prize of the USSR in 1948; book two, 1952). The novel centers on the image of an ordinary soldier and the process of his moral coming-of-age in the difficult days of combat at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. His novel Eagle Steppe (1959) is about the tamers of the virgin lands; its hero is a man of strong will, a leader of youth. Bubennov’s novel Rapids (1970) is about the young builders who are enthusiastically developing Siberia. He has been awarded two orders and various medals.