Avril Pyman (aka Dr Avril Sokolov, FBA; born 4 May 1930) is a British scholar and translator of Russian literature. [1] Avril was a Reader in Russian at Durham University [2] and was the first female scholar of the University to be elected as a Fellow of the British Academy. [3]
In addition to translating poetry and children's literature, she has written a study of Russian symbolism, as well as biographies of Alexander Blok and Pavel Florensky. [4]
She was married to the late Russian artist Kirill Sokolov. They have daughter Irina (Irene).
Selected translations include: [5] [6]
Andrei Platonovich Platonov was a Soviet Russian novelist, short story writer, philosopher, playwright, and poet. Although Platonov regarded himself as a communist, his principal works remained unpublished in his lifetime because of their skeptical attitude toward collectivization of agriculture (1929–1940) and other Stalinist policies, as well as for their experimental, avant-garde form infused with existentialism. His famous works include the novels Chevengur (1928) and The Foundation Pit (1930).
Three Sisters is a play by the Russian author and playwright Anton Chekhov. It was written in 1900 and first performed in 1901 at the Moscow Art Theatre. The play is often included on the shortlist of Chekhov's outstanding plays, along with The Cherry Orchard, The Seagull and Uncle Vanya.
Chinghiz Torekulovich Aitmatov was a Kyrgyz author who wrote mainly in Russian, but also in Kyrgyz. He is one of the best known figures in Kyrgyzstan's literature.
Arkady PetrovichGaidar was a Russian Soviet writer, whose stories were very popular among Soviet children, and a Red Army commander.
Nikolay Alekseyevich Zabolotsky was a Soviet and Russian poet and translator. He was a Modernist and one of the founders of the Russian avant-garde absurdist group Oberiu.
Vladimir Mikhailovich Kirshon was a Soviet playwright, poet, publicist and screenwriter.
The Magic Swan Geese is a Russian fairy tale collected by Alexander Afanasyev in Narodnye russkie skazki, numbered 113.
Kaisyn Shuvayevich Kuliev or Qaysin Quli was a Balkar poet. He wrote in the Karachay-Balkar language. His poems are widely translated to most languages in the former Soviet Union, including Russian, Ossetian, Lithuanian, Belarusian, Armenian. Kuliev's books have been published in 140 languages in Europe, Asia, and America.
Marko Vovchok was a Ukrainian female writer of Russian descent. Her pen name, Marko Vovchok, was invented by Panteleimon Kulish. Her works had an anti-serfdom orientation and described the historical past of Ukraine. In the 1860s, Vovchok gained considerable literary fame in Ukraine after the publication in 1857 of a Ukrainian-language collection, "Folk Tales". In terms of literary fiction, Marko is considered to be one of the first influential modernist authors in Ukraine. Her works "shaped the development of the Ukrainian short story". Also, she enriched the Ukrainian literature with a number of new genres, in particular, the social story (Instytutka). The story "Marusya", translated and adapted into French, became popular in Western Europe at the end of the 19th century.
Liubov Yakovlevna Gurevich was a Russian editor, translator, author, and critic. She has been described as "Russia's most important woman literary journalist." From 1894 to 1917 she was the publisher and chief editor of the monthly journal The Northern Herald, a leading Russian symbolist publication based in Saint Petersburg. The journal acted as a rallying-point for the Symbolists Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Zinaida Gippius, Fyodor Sologub, Nikolai Minsky, and Akim Volynsky.
Kostas Kubilinskas was a Lithuanian poet known for his writing for children. Amongst his books is The Frog Queen, a 1974 collection of children's poetry illustrated by Algirdas Steponavicius and translated into English by Avril Pyman.
Olga Vsevolodovna Ivinskaya was a Soviet poet and writer. She is best-known as friend and lover of Nobel Prize-winning writer Boris Pasternak during the last 13 years of his life and the inspiration for the character of Lara in his novel Doctor Zhivago (1957).
Joe Fineberg (1886–1957) was a prominent translator for the Communist International. He produced English translations of works by Alexander Bogdanov, Nikolay Dobrolyubov, Ilya Ehrenburg, Vladimir Lenin, Boris Polevoy, Leo Tolstoy and others.
Margaret Butterworth Wettlin was an American-born Soviet memoirist and translator, best known for her translations of Russian literature. While living in Russia, she was forced into spying for its secret service.
Dorian Rottenberg was a translator of Russian literature, specializing in the translation of poetry and children's books. Selected translations include:
Russian State University of Physical Education, Sport, Youth and Tourism (SCOLIPE) is a university in Moscow, founded in 1918.
Valentina Platonovna Polukhina was a British-Russian scholar, Emeritus Professor at Keele University, and the widow of Daniel Weissbort. She was the recipient of the A. C. Benson Medal and the Medal of Pushkin.
Rufina Sergeyevna Gasheva was a Soviet Polikarpov Po-2 navigator during World War II who served with the all-female 588th Night Bomber Regiment and recipient of the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Postwar, she continued to serve and was a lecturer in foreign languages at the Malinovsky Military Armored Forces Academy before her retirement. After retiring, Gasheva worked in the Bureau of Foreign Military Literature at Voenizdat.
Amirkhan Kamizovich Shomakhov was a Soviet Kabardian lyrics, prose, and play writer, primarily known as one of the founders of the Kabardian children's literature. People's Poet of the Kabarda-Balkar ASSR (1977). Member of the Union of Soviet Writers since 1949. Member of the CPSU since 1938.
Mikhail Kuzmich Lukonin was a Soviet and Russian poet, writer and war correspondent. He was born in Kilinchi and in his youth worked in the Stalingrad Tractor Plant. He started publishing poetry in his teens. He attended the Gorky Institute of Literature from 1937 to 1941. He was a veteran of the Winter War and also worked as a war correspondent in the Great Patriotic War. In October 1941, he was wounded in the village of Negino. The following year, he joined the Communist Party.