Antonina Dmitrievna Koptiaeva

Born Oct. 25 (Nov. 7), 1909, at the luzhnyi Mine, now in Zeia Raion, Amur Oblast. Soviet Russian writer.

Koptiaeva began to publish in 1935 and graduated from the Gorky Literary Institute in 1947. She is the author of the novella Kolyma Gold (1936, under the pen name A. Zeite), the collection of essays The Tale of Aldan (1937), and the novels Luck (1940), Comrade Anna (1946), and Gift of the Earth (1963). She also wrote the trilogy Ivan Ivanovich (1949; State Prize of the USSR, 1950), Friendship (1954), and Daring (1958), the central character of which is a talented doctor and humanist. Koptiaeva’s books deal largely with questions of love, family, marriage, and man’s social duty. Her books have been translated into many languages of the peoples of the USSR and into foreign languages. She has been awarded two orders and various medals.