Background
Leonid Solomonovitch Pervomayskiy (Ilya Shlyomovich (Solomonovich) Gurevich) was born on May 17, 1908 in Krasnohrad, Kharkivs'ka Oblast', Ukraine to the family of a bookbinder.
playwright translator writer poet
Leonid Solomonovitch Pervomayskiy (Ilya Shlyomovich (Solomonovich) Gurevich) was born on May 17, 1908 in Krasnohrad, Kharkivs'ka Oblast', Ukraine to the family of a bookbinder.
Leonid Solomonovitch worked in a factory, then at a library and a newspaper. During 1941-1945, he was a military reporter. After the World War II, he published a novel in verse called "Brother's Youth" (Молодість брата, 1947) and numerous collections of poetry.
In 1946 he was awarded Stalin Prize of second degree for collections of poetry "День народження" ("The Birthday") and "Земля" ("The Land"). Later, he had been criticized by the Communist Party for the so-called "ideological errors".
Pervomaysky died on 9 December 1973. He was buried in Kiev at the Baikove Cemetery.