Libedinskii, Iurii Nikolaevich

Born Nov. 28 (Dec. 10), 1898, in Odessa; died Nov. 24, 1959, in Moscow. Russian Soviet writer. Member of the CPSU since 1920. Son of a physician.

Libedinskii fought in the Civil War and the Great Patriotic War. He was a member of the Oktiabr’ literary group and a leader of RAPP (Russian Association of Proletarian Writers). Libedinskii’s novellas The Week (1922), one of the first important works by a young Soviet prose writer, and The Commissars (1925) are about the Civil War of 1918–20. The problem of party leadership is the core of the novels Tomorrow (1923), The Change (1927), and Birth of a Hero (1930).

Much of Libedinskii’s work is devoted to the life and customs of the peoples of the Caucasus, their past, and their revolutionary struggles, as well as to the international brotherhood of the nationalities of the USSR—for example, the novel Batash and Batai (1940–41) and the novel trilogy Mountains and Men (1947), The Blaze (1952), and Morning of the Soviets (1957). He also wrote war sketches and stories; a book for young people, Spiritual Training (1962); novellas about S. M. Kirov, published as Son of the Party (1964; with E. Blok); and the memoirs Contemporaries (1958) and Temporal Bonds (1962). Libedinskii was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and several medals.