Zlobin, Stepan

Born Nov. 11 (24), 1903, in Moscow; died there Sept. 15, 1965. Soviet Russian writer.

Zlobin graduated from the V. la. Briusov Higher Literary Institute in 1924, the year his works were first published. He is the author of historical novels about the popular movements of the 17th and 18th centuries. These include Salavat lulaev (1929),Buian Island (1948), and Stepan Razin (1951; State Prize of the USSR, 1952). Zlobin portrayed the era with verisimilitude, showing the friendship among the peoples of old Russia and their common struggle for freedom. While serving in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45, Zlobin was a prisoner of war for a time. On the basis of his personal observations, he wrote about the courage of Soviet prisoners of war in his novel The Missing Ones (vols. 1–2, 1962). Zlobin’s novels have been translated into several languages, particularly those of the peoples of the USSR. He was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War Second Class and various medals.