Alexander Stepanovich Yakovlev (November 23, 1886 – November 4, 1953) was a Russian/Soviet writer.

Biography

Yakovlev was born into the family of a house painter in the town of Volsk

Volsk

Volsk is a town in Saratov Oblast, Russia, located to the northeast from Saratov, on the right bank of the Volga River, opposite the mouth of the Bolshoy Irgiz, the Volga tributary. Population:...

. He fought in World War 1. His works concentrate on the lives of working class people. Yakovlev is credited with being one of the first writers to depict the Russian Revolution of 1917

Russian Revolution of 1917

The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...

 on a broad canvas in his novel October (1918). He was the author of many novels, including Fires in the Field (1934–35) and Steps (1940), and a number of stories and essays. He also chronicled the rescue attempts made on the expeditions of Nobile and Roald Amundsen

Roald Amundsen

Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He led the first Antarctic expedition to reach the South Pole between 1910 and 1912 and he was the first person to reach both the North and South Poles. He is also known as the first to traverse the Northwest Passage....

, in which he took part. He died in Moscow in 1953.

English translations

• The Peasant, from The Salt Pit and Other Stories, Raduga, Moscow, 1988.