Pavel Nilin

Born Jan. 3 (16), 1908, in Irkutsk. Soviet Russian writer. Member of the CPSU since 1944.

Nilin was a metal craftsman, a stoker, and a criminal investigator. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45, he was a war correspondent for newspapers at home and on the front lines. Nilin’s first book, A Man Goes up in the World: Sketches of an Ordinary Life, was published in 1936. His works, which are noted for authenticity and realistic precision in describing labor and everyday life, include the stories “Favorite Girl” (1936; film, 1940), “The Last Theft” (1939), and “About Love” (1940) and the screenplay for A Great Life (part 1, 1940, State Prize of the USSR, 1941; part 2, 1958).

Nilin won great renown for the novellas Cruelty (1956; film, 1958) and Trial Period (1956; film, 1960), which depict the drama and complexity of the uncompromising struggle of socialist humanism against petit bourgeois pseudorevolutionism and dogmatism. In the novella Through the Cemetery (1962; film, 1965), Nilin continues to deal with problems of moral integrity and the refusal to compromise.

Nilin’s works have been translated into the languages of the peoples of the USSR and into foreign languages. He has received two orders and a number of medals.