Chukovskii, Nikolai

Born May 20 (June 2), 1904, in Odessa; died Nov. 4, 1965, in Moscow. Soviet Russian writer. Son of K. I. Chukovskii.

N. K. Chukovskii graduated from the Leningrad Institute for the History of Arts in 1930 and was first published in 1922. He wrote biographical novellas about famous navigators and novellas and novels about the Civil War, such as Glory (1935), The Village of Kniazhii Ugol (1936) and Yaroslavl’ (1938). Chukovskii’s most significant work is his novel The Baltic Sky (1954; film with the same title, 1961), which describes the courage of the pilots of the Baltic Fleet who defended Leningrad during the siege. In his novellas and short stories “Mesalliance” (1963), “Little Girl Life” (1965), and “Bloomed the Wild Strawberries” (1965), Chukovskii treats moral and ethical problems in a psychologically authentic way. Chukovskii was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and various medals.