FEDIN, KONSTANTIN ALEKSANDROVICH

born Feb. 24 [Feb. 12, Old Style], 1892, Saratov, Russia died July 15, 1977, Moscow Soviet writer noted primarily for his early novels that portray the difficulties of intellectuals in Soviet Russia. During the 1920s, Fedin belonged to a literary group called the Serapion Brothers, the members of which accepted the Revolution but demanded freedom for art and literature. His first novel, Goroda i gody (1924; Cities and Years), based partly on his experiences as an internee in Germany during World War I, was a social-psychological study of the reaction of the intelligentsia to the Russian Revolution. Gradually, however, he took a position more consistent with official Soviet literary policies and, in 1959, was appointed first secretary of the steering committee of the Union of Soviet Writers, a post he held until 1971, when he was elected chairman of the executive board. His major work is generally considered to be the trilogy composed of Pervyye radosti (1945; First Joys), Neobyknovennoye leto (194748; An Unusual Summer), and Kostyor (196165; The Conflagration). Though they are Socialist Realist works, they are nonetheless fresh and vital and are free from the simplistic psychological portrayals that abound in many Soviet novels.