Russian Poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, recites his poetry "There
Are No Fears"
Event Date: April 29, 2004
Yevgeny Yevtushenko, the famous Russian poet, recited his poetry in both
English and Russian in a program titled "There Are No Fears".
Yevtushenko is a poet, novelist, film maker and professor of literature and cinema.
He was born in Siberia, where his ancestors were sent into exile at the end of the 19th century.
A spokesman for greater artistic freedom in the Soviet Union, Yevtushenko
was once referred to as "the head of the intellectual juvenile delinquents" and was expelled from school for
disobedience in 1948 and in 1957 from the Literary Institute for "individualism."
His 1961 poem "Babi Yar," a denunciation of both Nazi and Russian anti-Semitism,
brought him international recognition and inspired Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich
to write his Symphony No. 13 (Babi Yar). The poem was not published in Russia until 1984.
Yevtushenko is an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and
Letters and was awarded the American Liberties Medallion of the American Jewish Committee in 1991.
He divides his time between Russia and the United States, where he teaches poetry at
Queens College, N.Y., and the University of Tulsa.
For more information about poetry at the Library of Congress, visit the
Web at
www.loc.gov/poetry
