Bukov, Emilian

Born July 26 (Aug. 8), 1909, in Novaia Kilia, Southern Bessarabia. Soviet Moldavian writer. Member of the CPSU since 1950.

Bukov studied at the literature and philosophy department of the University of Bucharest from 1931 to 1936. He took part in underground revolutionary activities as a member of the Communist Youth League in Rumania. He was a contributor to progressive Rumanian magazines and journals. His poetry collections Labor Is in Full Swing (1932), The Sun Speaks (1937), and China (1938) contain sharp criticisms of bourgeois society and are imbued with enthusiasm for the revolutionary struggle. After the formation of the Moldavian SSR in 1940, Bukov glorified the socialist homeland and depicted the transformations in the lives of the Moldavian people in the collections of poems Thee I See, Moldavia (1942), Spring on the Dnestr (1944), My Country (1947), The Floors Are Rising (1952), and Poems (1954) and the novel in verse City Reut (1956; Russian translation 1958). Andriesh, a tale in verse, has enjoyed much popularity. Bukov was the author of the play Danube—Restless Waters (1956; performed under the title The Seething Danube, 1957), the collection of stories Sparks of the Heart (1965), the narrative poem Song of Youth (1969), and the novel Main Line (1969). He was honored with the State Prize of the Moldavian SSR in 1966 for his poetry collections and the narrative poem Today and Tomorrow. He was a deputy at the Second and Third convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. He was awarded the Order of Lenin, two other orders, and medals.