Sasha Chernyi

(real name, Aleksandr Mikhailovich Glikberg). Born Oct. 1 (13), 1880, in Odessa; died Aug. 5, 1932, in Le Lavandou, France. Russian poet.

The son of a pharmacist, Chernyi was first published in 1904. Over a period beginning in 1905, he contributed to satirical journals in St. Petersburg, including, from 1908 to 1911, Satirikon. Chernyi’s satirical verse was caustic and to the point. In the poems of his collection Satiry (1910), he unmasked political reaction, ridiculed liberal intellectuals who had betrayed their high ideals, and mocked philistinism and triviality in politics, literature, and everyday life. His sarcasm and pessimism subsequently intensified in his lyric poetry.

Chernyi emigrated in 1920. His book Thirst (1923) is colored with nostalgia for his lost homeland. In the last years of his life, in addition to conventional short stories, Chernyi wrote stories of a new type that were collected in Soldier’s Tales (published 1933). In this collection Chernyi, who had fought in World War I, depicted the Russian soldier of that period. Chernyi was also a master of verse and prose for children.