Staroselskaya, Ksenia

Translator of Polish literature (from 1963), sub-editor of the magazine „Inostrannaya Literatura” (“Foreign Literature”) , member of the Union „Masters of Literary Translation”, leader of the Polish literature translation seminar

Russian prizes:
Prize of “Inostrannaya Literatura” (1986)

Polish prizes:
Zasłużony dla kultury polskiej (1983)
Nagroda ZAIKS’u (1990) – za wybitne osiągnięcia w dziedzinie przekładu
Krzyz Kawalerski Orderu Zasługi RP (1999)
Nagroda polskiego PEN klubu (2004)
Nagroda Transatlantyk (2008)
Nagroda honorowa Fundacji Kultury Polskiej (2010)

Simkin, Sem

At the age of 23 Simkin entered the University of Fishing Industry in Kaliningrad. As a seaman, he traveled the oceans. His first book of poetry he published in 1966. In 1988 he received the highest award for Applied Art in the Kaliningrad region.
Beside his own poetry Simkin took the task to translate the lyrics of the poets based in East Prussia into Russian. Although Simkin not even spoke German, he managed to translate poems by E. T. A. Hoffmann, Johann Gottfried Herder, Agnes Miegel, Ernst Wiechert, Johannes Bobrowski and others in surprisingly good quality. Among the most important collections of poems he edited are "You are my only light ..." (Du mein einzig Licht, 1993) and eight volumes of the series "Poetry from East Prussia".

In 2005 Simkin received the „Kulturpreis der Landsmannschaft Ostpreußen“.

Sem Simkin died in 2010 in Kaliningrad.

Pushkin, Aleksandr

Born in Moscow, Pushkin published his first poem at the age of fifteen, and by the time of his graduation from the Imperial Lyceum in Tsarskoye Selo outside of St. Petersburg he was widely recognized by the literary establishment. Pushkin gradually became committed to social reform and emerged as a spokesman for literary radicals; in the early 1820s he clashed with the government, which sent him into exile in southern Russia. While under the strict surveillance of government censors and unable to travel or publish at will, he wrote his most famous play, the drama Boris Godunov, but could not publish it until years later. His novel in verse, Eugene Onegin, was published serially from 1825 to 1832.

Lermontov, Mikhail

Mikhail Lermontov, Romantic poet and author of the highly influential novel “A Hero of Our Time,” was born in Moscow to Maria Lermontova, an heiress to rich estates, and Yuri Lermontov, a poor army officer. Thanks to his wealthy and domineering grandmother, Mikhail Lermontov was steeped in the Classics and French Romantic thought from an early age, and at age fourteen he entered a boarding school for the sons of the nobility in Moscow. Here, he developed his passion for poetry, along with a reputation for cruel and sardonic humour. In 1828 he was admitted to Moscow University, where he began writing poetry influenced by Lord Byron and the latter’s cult of personality. After being expelled for disciplinary reasons he attended cadet school in St. Petersburg and in 1834 he was stationed in the city with the Hussar regiment of the Imperial Guards. By 1832 Lermontov had already written two hundred lyric poems, ten long poems and three plays. His passionate eulogy on Pushkin’s murder, “A Poet’s Death,” which was published in 1837, was enthusiastically received in liberal circles but annoyed Tsar Nicholas I, with the result that Lermontov was exiled to the Caucasus. Due to his grandmother’s influence he was permitted to return to St. Petersburg. However, his experience of exile did not temper his critical attitude towards Russia’s aristocratic milieu or his conviction that Russia lacked clear and consistent leadership. After fighting a duel with the son of the French ambassador, he was sent to join a regiment stationed at the Black Sea, where he distinguished himself in combat. In 1841, after feigning illness in order to be sent to the health resort of Pyatigorsk near Moscow, a fellow army officer took umbrage at one of Lermontov’s jokes and killed him in a duel.