M Ilin

(pseudonym of Il’ia Iakovlevich Marshak). Born Dec. 29,1895 (Jan. 10, 1896), in Bakhmut, now Artemovsk; died Nov. 15, 1953, in Moscow. Soviet Russian writer.

Il’in graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Technology in 1925. He published The Sun on the Table in 1927. Il’in’s book for children, One Hundred Thousand Why’s (1929), is the story of the simple everyday things that surround us. He wrote entertaining essays on the development of technology, including “How the Automobile Learned to Go” (1930) and “Tales of Things” (1936). The Story of the Great Plan (1930) won high praise from M. Gorky. This children’s story about the first five-year plan and its sequel, Mountains and People (1935), were translated into almost all the European languages. Il’in was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.